Soliciting = Asking for something

Passing out flyers is "asking" them to take one, so, it's soliciting.

To be blunt, if you knew there was NO hope that any of those people would ever use your real estate services, would you have been knocking on doors? 

I've seen this rationale used before to excuse violating no solicitation rules.  "I'm providing free services, that's NOT solicitation!!!"

Sorry, but the entire endeavor is business driven.  If it wasn't, you wouldn't be putting out your business card offering free CMAs along with the fliers.  And I think we can safely assume that the Open House will not lack in plenty of advertising for your brokerage as you're giving away the free stuff?

If any of these people come to you later offering business, are you going to decline because "I wasn't soliciting!!"? 

You might want to make sure you're well aware of any local laws and HOA definitions of "no solicting", because I'd venture they wouldn't have too much trouble deciding you were most definitely soliciting.

I say "NO"... with all Caps!  My no solicitation sign means I don't want uninvited people coming to my door. Period!  I wouldn't swear at you but (if I answered the door at all) I would tell you to go away for not respecting my sign.  I would NEVER do business with you for marketing in a way I clearly don't want. 

As for you saying, you aren't selling something... you are!  That is just the first step in your selling process.  Send me something in the mail but do NOT come to my door uninvited. 

Good pic Rodney, you clean up nice! LOL

If you knock on my door with a No Soliciting you may be feeling lucky. Punk? Do ya? 

You should have MAILED to the ones with the signs is my opinion. You could even have mentioned in the mailer that you RESPECTED their sign and therefore are mailing. 

There is no room for interpretation here - NO means NO. Are you seriously tryng to tell yourself that you were not selling anything?

Shawshank Redemption (1994) - how can you be so obtuse? - YouTube

A NO SOLICITING sign means just that. Abiding means being a good neighbor and if not, you may be marked as intrusive and rude. If you want to be met with a gun in outlying areas, go ahead and knock, I dare ya!

No soiliciting around here means don't come on my property or knock on my door for any reason. People around here have signs that say " Solicitors Will Be Shot - Survivors Will be Prosecuted"

I'm with many others here ... what part of "NO" do you not understand but rather choose to ignore to serve your own agenda in disguise of being a "good neighbor".  

A good neighbor would honor the sign ... and respect it and me by not knocking on my door.  

     In some States, ignoring a "No Solicitation" sign may constitute trespass.  Please see an attorney for clarification before knocking on any more doors.

Forgetting for a moment we're in a pandemic and you are tone deaf to that clearly, you violated the no soliciting requests on peoples' homes.

What you were doing was soliciting. No solicting means no knocking unless you are a friend, family member or delivery guy.  It was a gimmick. You were solicting.

Your definition is incomplete-therefore incorrect.

This type of behavior gives real estate a bad name. 

Learn to respect others, what you did was selfish.

This approach angers and disappoints me.  I think it gives all of us a bad rap.  The number of people who would not say to your face what they think of this intrusive behaviour is far greater I'm sure than the 2 who actually did. You have no idea how many of the 248 will tell dozens upon dozens of friends and family about this invasion of their space and their time (especially when so many are working from home)  

Just today we had someone uninvited at our door.  They frightened our dog who in turn woke up my 93 yr old napping Mother.  I was on hemo dialysis and this startled me to the extent that the alarms on my machine went crazy which needed my husband to immediately attend to before it became critical.  Yet this salesman thought his "Non solicitation" was more important than what was going on inside our home.  I'll let your imagination decide how we now feel about him, his company, his tactics and his desperation to stoop so low to be on our stoop! 

As Bill said, Salespeople like this need us to be blunt.

You handed out promotional materials, promoting your sales business, and that's not soliciting?  Terrible take.  Respect people's wishes to not be bothered, you give yourself and your industry a bad rep with actions like this.

I don't door knock, period end of story... sign or no sign. I get very annoyed when someone knocks on my door without invitation. I won't do that to anyone else... kind of like the golden rule. I've often wondered what part of NO is hard for some people to understand.

Why don't they like British Lawyers? (they're known as solicitors across the pond)  😄

But in all seriousness, even if I'm dropping off a "just sold" flyer, I stay away from the ones with the signs.  There is always someone who will go all out to make your life miserable for ignoring the sign.

Rodney that would be a big fat NO in my book.  Be careful, you don't want to make a 'name' for yourself that you can never recover from.  No soliciting means just that.

Rodney.

We had a case here of an agent inviting everyone to an open house she was have two blocks away.  Her system was to scotch tape flyers  to the doors if they were not there.  Given that we live in an area with many second home owners, these taped signs would be a clear signal that no one is home...A neighbor joined me in taking down these signs...I did talk to her about it, and she turned a blind eye, and came back and put up more...We added it to the recycle bin.  A

Have you already read your Springville UT's rules about solicitation (specifically Chapter 6 of your town code - link below)? And have you already determined whether or not you need a Solicitation Permit (link below)? The rules do address "no solicitation" signs. You might want to make sure you know the rules since "Any person who violates any term or provision of this Chapter shall be guilty of a Class B Misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not to exceed $1,000.00 and/or a jail sentence of not to exceed six (6) months. "

https://www.codepublishing.com/UT/Springville/html/Springville07/Springville076.html#7-6-101

https://www.springville.org/community-development/files/2012/04/Solicitor-Application-Logo.pdf

Some people put no solicitation signs up for reasons other than not wanting someone selling them something. When I first got back into Real Estate, my kids were old enough to be home by themselves yet still young. I put up a no solicitation sign because I didn't want strangers knocking on my door when my kids were home by themselves. Some people work from home and also don't want people knocking on the door. My home office is right next to my front door. People will come knock on the door and sometimes I'm on a zoom call. My husband is upstairs on conferences. We can't get to the door. When someone knocks or rings the doorbell, my dog goes crazy which is another reason I don't want people knocking on the door. When my kids were babies, I'd often put a sign on the door saying, do not knock, baby is sleeping. You could really ruin a tired parents day by waking up their baby.

Keep in mind, to solicit doesn't mean to sell. You can be soliciting someone's opinion, help, or to asking for something. So, I would say instead of knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell, just leave your information and go.

Edited to add: When you know on houses with no solicitation signs in my area, you may end up being blasted on the neighborhood website or Nextdoor. Do you want to ruin your reputation by knocking on those doors?

First, no door knocking.  Second if there is a sign NO door knocking.

I applaud you that you walked that many homes. It's a real learning experience isn't it?

So, what do you think those sellers mean by no solicitation now that you've done it? Some 'aggressives' mean, don't ring my bell or I'll ring yours (literally).

How do you feel after doing this? Has it or will it be successful? I hope you let us know.

My years of experience is saying that you don't need that abuse. Rodney, take time to study this & see if it is valuable to your business objectives.

There are curmudgens EVERYWHERE.
Many take refuge behind walls and gates and signs so they can peacefully enjoy a life of monotenous oppulence.
248 doors and two curmudgeons. Hey you need not work at the Jet Perpulsion Laboratories to read that message.
What are my feelings?
I love it when anyone knocks on my door. Why?
These are folks willing facing abuse to offer me a solution I might need.
I want to give them the practice. They can be hocking  solar panels, frozen turkeys, religion or a free CMA. They know on my door and they will be given an opportunity to demonstrate their genius and I will celebrate it. When there is two of them I see if I can get one to keep pushing my mower as tthe other chats. Don't get you shorts in a pinch, have some fun.
If I were training a newbie (oldbies own the words 'I KNow' and there fore untrainable) the first two weeks would be door knocking. Why? So when they hear sutff like what is read here today, they need to KNOW this as absoulute what they should do. 
As their real estae career advances they willl deveolp a nose for where the herd goes and go a new way.
It is important to know that those just beginning with nothing to work with have different needs that old agents who are committed to die with their referral base. That is just the way it is.

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You seem to want affirmation that what you did was not soliciting, and tone deaf to comments letting you know you definitely WERE soliciting. As Thomas J. Nelson, REALTOR ® e-Pro CRS RCS-D Vets , setting aside this practice is particularly egregious in the midst of a pandemic.  It makes no difference whether you did this in your own neighborhood or another you do not reside in.  A NO SOLICITING sign is no different than being on the DO NOT CALL list.  The good conversations you had is no indication that what you did was ok, it just demonstrates the general overall good nature of people.  You have no idea why the NO SOLICITING sign is there, people who work nights and need their sleep when they can get it, people with infants and they are only getting four hours of sleep at night, people who are caring for someone just released from the hospital or hospice patients in their home.  What you did is selfish, no matter how you try to justify it that you were "helping people".  You help NO ONE with this practice other than helping give our occupation a bad name, and THAT is no help at all.  If your Broker knows you are doing this and does not tell you to stop or condones it, you have selected the wrong Broker.

No solicitation should be taken as a NO! I would leave the flier in the door and move on, especially in this day and age.

In the good OLD days, I was always told that those that had a No Soliciting sign were weak and lay me down sales!!! LOL

I think that most people appreciate the visit, especially when you are offering them something of value.

We always get a good reception when we knock doors with an invitation to an open house in the neighborhood.

I've never had great results with knocking, so I put that practice to rest.

I think what you did was fine.  If you knocked on 248 homes and 2 people got upset, then 246 thought it was fine.

If people don't want to answer the door, they always have the right to not answer the door.

We have a No Solicitation Bylaw in our community. If I'm going to door knock (which I do not) I'd call the police station and tell which neighborhoods I'm going to be in and my purpose. If I'm just hanging door hanger lit all is ok.

What ever you feel comfortable with.  I ran into this before and discovered this.  

"The Supreme Court has ruled that a solicitor has a Constitutional Right to knock on doors and bother people at their homes or businesses.  And we can all agree we don’t want to head down that slippery slope of curtailing our First Amendment Rights. So, what can you do to keep solicitors at bay?"  

The Golden Rule applies here.  

I have a No Soliciting sign, and when someone still rings my doorbell, I am not very nice.  That is what it is for.   I have left door hangers, especially if I am looking for a specific home in an area a buyer wants.

"Door knocking for the sake of leads" - your quote.  Then you turned that into "helping" neighbors and friends in an area you have lived in for 20 years.  But did you know them? Did you ever try to help them or do something kind before you tried to make "leads" out of them?  And maybe these kind neighbors were being just that, "kind".  Don't try to sell us here to make you feel better. From where I sit: Bullshit is bullshit!!! And don't come knocking on my door, although, I would probably still treat you respectfully because that is my nature.

I don't bother knocking on doors with no soliciting sign. 

Do not knock on those doors if you want to be respected. Leave your brochure at the door.

If you weren't soliciting what would you call it. Without an invite I believe that you are. You're better off not ruffling any feathers if signs are present. There are oher ways to educate your neighbohoods and not be as intrusive.

I think you approach is correct. Many will be courteous. A few will not.