California · advertising rules
What a real estate agent's website must show in California
In California, a website you own or control is a "first point of contact" with the public, so it has to carry your name, your eight-digit DRE license number and your responsible broker's identity, with the license number no smaller than the smallest type on the page. Team names need a surname plus a word like "team" and must not sound like a separate brokerage.
Updated Rules read 2026-09-06
Does a website count as advertising in California?
Websites, email and other electronic advertising are first-point-of-contact solicitation materials, and the disclosure rules apply to them. 10 CCR §2773Business and Professions Code §10140.6
“Websites owned, controlled, and/or maintained by the soliciting real estate licensee … advertisements in electronic media (including, without limitation, internet, email, radio, cinema, and television advertisements)”
What every advertisement must show
Your name as licensed. Business and Professions Code §10140.6
Your eight-digit DRE license identification number. Business and Professions Code §10140.610 CCR §2773
“eight (8) digit real estate license identification number”
Your responsible broker's identity — the broker's name as currently licensed, or the broker's fictitious business name. Business and Professions Code §10140.610 CCR §2773
If you are also a mortgage loan originator, your NMLS unique identifier. Business and Professions Code §10140.6
Websites specifically
A website you own, control or maintain is itself solicitation material, so the disclosures belong on the site — not only on a downloadable flyer. 10 CCR §2773
In written form, the license number may not be set in type smaller than the smallest type used anywhere in the same material. On a web page, that means the license number cannot be the tiniest text in the footer. 10 CCR §2773
“the type size of the license identification number shall be no smaller than the smallest size type used in the solicitation material”
Team names
A team name is a brand used by a salesperson together with one or more other licensees. It must include the surname of at least one team member together with a word such as "associates", "group" or "team". Business and Professions Code §10159.7
A team name may not include "real estate broker", "real estate brokerage", "broker", "brokerage" or any wording that suggests the team is its own brokerage. Business and Professions Code §10159.7
A team name does not need its own licence, but a fictitious business name does — it is a brand approved by the DRE under which licensed activity is conducted. Business and Professions Code §10159.7
What gets agents in trouble
Solicitation material that reaches a consumer first without your license number and your responsible broker's identity. Business and Professions Code §10140.610 CCR §2773
Presenting a team as if it were an independent brokerage, by name or by omission of the responsible broker. Business and Professions Code §10159.7
Worth knowing
The sign exemption does not help a website: "for sale", rent, lease, open house and directional signs may omit the license number when they identify only the broker or no licensee at all, but that carve-out is written for signs. Business and Professions Code §10140.610 CCR §2773
Dates: §10140.6 was last amended by Stats. 2022, ch. 511 (effective 1 January 2023). Regulation 2773 became operative 5 November 2009 and was amended effective 28 March 2019. §10159.7 was amended by Stats. 2018, ch. 285 (effective 1 January 2019). Business and Professions Code §10140.610 CCR §2773Business and Professions Code §10159.7
Every SiteCurb site has a broker-disclosure footer on every page: your name, your brokerage, your license number, and the disclosure text your state expects, next to your contact details and never in smaller type than the rest of the footer. Fill it in once and it is on every page, including listings.
How many agents this applies to
35,839 real estate agents were working in California when we last counted, across 305brokerage offices. That is agents with a live profile on a brokerage's own site, not everyone holding a licence, so it is the population these rules actually bind day to day. The California brokerage directory breaks it down office by office. Counted 2026-09-13.
Sources
This page paraphrases the rules; the rules themselves are what bind you. Each was read on the date shown. If the DRE changes a rule, the page will lag until it is read again.
- Business and Professions Code §10140.6 — disclosure on solicitation materials — read 2026-09-06
- 10 CCR §2773 — license identification number and responsible broker's identity on solicitation materials — read 2026-09-06
- Business and Professions Code §10159.7 — team names and fictitious business names — read 2026-09-06
- Regulator: California Department of Real Estate
Not legal advice. When a rule and this page disagree, the rule wins; when in doubt, ask your broker or the DRE.
Questions people ask
Does my license number have to be on every page of my website?
The regulation treats the website itself as first-point-of-contact material and requires the number on it, with no type smaller than the smallest type used. Putting your name, DRE number and responsible broker in a footer that appears on every page satisfies that in the plainest way, and it is how SiteCurb's broker-disclosure footer is built.
Can I use my team name as the site's brand?
Yes, if it contains a member's surname plus "team", "group" or "associates", avoids any broker or brokerage wording, and the responsible broker's identity still appears as required.
Where do these rules come from?
Business and Professions Code §10140.6 and §10159.7 and Regulation 2773 of the California Code of Regulations, each linked above with the date it was read for this page.