There was zero tolerance for skipping houses, except if it was blatantly obvious that no one was living there, in my territory. As for knocking, the slime that dragged me into the cancer insisted on a VERY hard bang on the beam near the door, not just a regular knock (someone sleeping upstairs might not hear it) or a doorbell ring (too many of those things were busted). I used to knock on the metal plate on the screen door (made noise), but they insisted that it couldn't be heard if a person is in the shower or sleeping upstairs.
However, if a person was not interested, I would dog trying to get them interested. "Not interested" was enough--most people are not going to change their religion just because of a couple of witlesses insisting that, by the time the mainstream media got to it, it would be too late.