What a real estate agent's website must show in Missouri

Does a website count as advertising in Missouri?

• The rule applies to every real estate advertisement by a licensee, in any manner, without listing media. It has no website or social media provision and does not carve them out. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

  “Every advertisement of real estate by a licensee shall contain the broker's regular business name or the name under which the broker or the broker's firm is licensed”

What every advertisement must show

• The broker's regular business name, or the name under which the broker or firm is licensed, and an indication that the advertiser is a real estate broker and not a private party. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

  “shall indicate that the party advertising is a real estate broker and not a private party”

• If your name or phone number (or both) appears in an ad, the name and telephone number of the broker or firm that holds your license must appear too. Ads for property you have no interest in run under the broker's or firm's direct supervision and in its name. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

  “If the licensee's name or telephone number, or both, is used in any advertisement, the advertisement also shall include the name and telephone number of the broker or firm who holds the licensee's license.”

Websites specifically

• There is no website-specific rule. A website showing your name or number is an advertisement like any other, so it carries the broker's or firm's name and telephone number and shows that you are a real estate broker, not a private party. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

Team names

• No licensee or group may advertise as a real estate company, or use a name or team name the public could take for a real estate partnership, company, brokerage or business entity, without holding the appropriate entity license. The rule names "realty", "brokerage" and "company" as such terms. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

  “No licensee or group of licensees shall advertise as a real estate company in any manner, or use any name, team name, or other term that could be construed by members of the public as the advertiser being a real estate partnership, company, brokerage, or business entity, unless the advertiser holds a valid appropriate entity license.”

• Exception: if the team's name includes the name of the broker or brokerage it is affiliated with, "realty", "brokerage" or "company" may be used to refer to that affiliation. The Commission may also weigh the context of the ad. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

• A team that wants to advertise under a fictitious name should register it with the Secretary of State as a fictitious name owned by the affiliated broker or brokerage. Registering it does not exempt the team from the broker name-and-number requirement or the team-name rule. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

What gets agents in trouble

• Advertising in a way that suggests the offer comes from a private party, or that a property is "for sale by owner", when a licensee is handling any part of the transaction. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

• Ads showing only a post office box, telephone number or street address. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

• Advertising that indicates, directly or indirectly, unlawful discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, handicap or familial status. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

Worth knowing

• Advertising property you have an interest in that is not listed with a brokerage must say, prominently, "By owner-broker", "By owner-salesperson" or "By owner-agent". 20 CSR 2250-8.070

• A written ad for a guaranteed sales plan must tell sellers that, if eligible, costs and conditions may apply and to ask about the terms, in print at least a quarter the size of the ad's largest print. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

• 20 CSR 2250-8.070 does not require a license number in advertising. 20 CSR 2250-8.070

How many agents this applies to

3,844 real estate agents were working in Missouri when we last counted, across 27 brokerage 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 Missouri brokerage directory breaks it down office by office. Counted 2026-10-07.

Sources

This page paraphrases the rules; the rules themselves are what bind you. Each was read on the date shown. If the MREC changes a rule, the page will lag until it is read again.

• 20 CSR 2250-8.070 — Advertising — read 2026-10-07
• Regulator: Missouri Real Estate Commission

Not legal advice. When a rule and this page disagree, the rule wins; when in doubt, ask your broker or the MREC.

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