Pennsylvania · advertising rules
What a real estate agent's website must show in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's advertising rules are the State Real Estate Commission's regulations in 49 Pa. Code Chapter 35. An ad by a salesperson or associate broker must carry the employing broker's business name and telephone number, and brokerages may advertise only under the business name on their license. The regulations do not define advertising and say nothing specific about websites, social media or teams, so the same rules apply to a website as to any other ad.
Updated Rules read 2026-10-07
Does a website count as advertising in Pennsylvania?
Chapter 35 regulates "an advertisement" without defining the term or listing media. Nothing in it carves out websites, social media or email, and nothing addresses them specifically, so the rules read as applying to any ad in any medium. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
What every advertisement must show
An ad by an associate broker or salesperson must contain the employing broker's business name and telephone number, and the rule requires the names and telephone numbers to be of equal size. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
“An advertisement by an associate broker, salesperson, cemetery associate broker or cemetery salesperson shall contain the business name and telephone number of the employing broker. The names and telephone numbers shall be of equal size.”
A brokerage, sole proprietorships included, may advertise or hold itself out to the public only under the business name designated on its license. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
“shall advertise or otherwise hold themselves out to the public only under the business name designated on their license”
Websites specifically
There is no website-specific rule. Read as written, a website that advertises you is an advertisement like any other, so it carries your employing broker's business name and telephone number. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
The telephone number has to be the employing broker's. The Notes of Decisions printed with §35.305 record that the Commonwealth Court upheld discipline where ads showed only a number that rang through to the agent rather than the brokerage's own listed number (Campo v. State Real Estate Commission, 1998). 49 Pa. Code §35.305
Team names
Pennsylvania's regulations have no team-name rule. The business-name rule still governs: a brokerage advertises only under its licensed business name, and any agent's ad, a team's included, must carry the employing broker's business name and telephone number. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
What gets agents in trouble
Advertising a property for sale or lease, or soliciting buyers or tenants for it, without the authority of the seller or lessor or their agent. 49 Pa. Code §35.301
Selling or leasing your own real estate without disclosing in the ads that you are a real estate licensee (unless the property is listed with a real estate company). 49 Pa. Code §35.304
A broker's "sales volume" or "production" claims that count anything but closed transactions, market-position claims that do not name the municipality the market covers, and office counts that include offices without branch office licenses. 49 Pa. Code §35.307
Worth knowing
Pennsylvania does not require a license number in advertising under §35.305; it requires the employing broker's business name and telephone number. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
To advertise a nickname for your first name, include the nickname on your license application or biennial renewal application. 49 Pa. Code §35.305
“Licensees who wish to use and advertise a nickname for their first names shall include the nickname on their licensure applications or biennial renewal applications.”
An ad that uses lotteries, contests, prizes, certificates, gifts or free lots must describe each one, its prerequisites, any limit on the number offered, its fair market value and the odds of winning. 49 Pa. Code §35.306
Every SiteCurb site has a broker-disclosure footer on every page, listings included: your name, your brokerage and your license number, plus a disclosure field for the text and links your state requires (Texas agents get a one-click helper for the two TREC links). Fill it in once and it is on every page.
How many agents this applies to
10,469 real estate agents were working in Pennsylvania when we last counted, across 80 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 Pennsylvania 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 Commission changes a rule, the page will lag until it is read again.
- 49 Pa. Code §35.305 — Business name on advertisements — read 2026-10-07
- 49 Pa. Code §35.301 — Unauthorized advertising and solicitation — read 2026-10-07
- 49 Pa. Code §35.304 — Disclosure of licensure when advertising own real estate — read 2026-10-07
- 49 Pa. Code §35.306 — Advertisements of lotteries, contests, prizes, certificates, gifts and lots — read 2026-10-07
- 49 Pa. Code §35.307 — Advertisements of sales volume, market position and numbers of offices — read 2026-10-07
- Regulator: Pennsylvania State Real Estate Commission
Not legal advice. When a rule and this page disagree, the rule wins; when in doubt, ask your broker or the Commission.
Questions people ask
What has to be on my website in Pennsylvania?
Your employing broker's business name and telephone number, and the rule says names and telephone numbers are to be of equal size. Use the brokerage's own listed number, not a line that rings through to you. On SiteCurb, put the broker's name and office number in the disclosure field so they are on every page.
Do I need my license number on ads in Pennsylvania?
Not under §35.305. It asks for the employing broker's business name and telephone number, not a license number.
Can I sell my own house without saying I'm licensed?
No, unless it is listed with a real estate company. A licensee selling or leasing their own real estate must disclose in the ads that they are a real estate licensee.