Florida’s advertising rule is far shorter than the internet suggests, and two of the most-repeated “Florida requirements” are not requirements at all — they come from an amendment that was withdrawn in 2019. Here is what Rule 61J2-10.025 actually says.
This is a plain-English summary of a published rule, not legal advice. Advertising rules change and brokerages impose stricter policies than the state does. Confirm with your broker or the Florida Real Estate Commission before relying on it.
Step by step
1
Lead with your brokerage's licensed name
The one hard requirement: “All real estate advertisements must include the licensed name of the brokerage firm.” Not an abbreviation, not a logo alone — the name the firm is registered under. A registered trade name is fine where the brokerage holds one on its licence.
2
Use your last name as registered
“At the very least the licensee’s last name must be used in the manner in which it is registered with the Commission.” A nickname can sit alongside it but cannot replace the registered surname.
3
Make it obvious you are a licensee
The overarching standard: advertising must be “in a manner in which reasonable persons would know they are dealing with a real estate licensee.” A title such as Sales Associate or Broker Associate satisfies this — but no specific title is mandated. It is a test of overall impression, not a required string.
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Skip the license number — Florida does not require one
The word ‘number’ does not appear anywhere in Florida’s advertising rule, nor in the DBPR’s own published answer on advertising requirements. This is a real state-by-state difference: California requires an eight-digit number, Florida requires none. Include it if you like; nothing obliges you to.
5
Only claim designations you actually hold
Rule 61J2-10.027 forbids using “an identification or designation of any association or organization having to do with real estate unless entitled to use such identification.” REALTOR®, GRI, CRS and the rest belong in your signature only while you actually hold them.
6
Team name? Check it against the banned-word list
Team names may not include Agency, Associates, Brokerage, Brokers, Company, Corporation, Corp., Inc., LLC, LP, LLP, Partnership, Properties, Property, Real Estate or Realty — nor anything similar suggesting the team is a separate brokerage. And the team name may not be in larger print than the registered brokerage’s name.
Two “Florida rules” that are not Florida rules
This topic is unusually polluted with confident, wrong advice — including from law-firm blogs and AI-generated summaries. Two claims in particular:
“Your name may not appear larger than your brokerage’s name.” and “Individual agents cannot use words like Realty, Properties or Associates.”
Both come from a 2018 amendment that was proposed and then withdrawn in January 2019. It was never adopted. The current adopted text of Rule 61J2-10.025 dates from 5 February 2007 and contains neither rule.
A size rule and a banned-word list do exist — but in a different rule, 61J2-10.026, and they govern team and group names, never an individual agent’s name.
What the rule actually requires
Rule 61J2-10.025, F.A.C. is short. Its operative parts require only that advertising makes clear a reasonable person is dealing with a licensee; that every advertisement includes the licensed name of the brokerage firm; that nothing is fraudulent, false, deceptive or misleading; and that where the licensee’s personal name appears, the registered last name is used. A further provision adds a placement rule specific to websites — the brokerage name must sit adjacent to, immediately above, or immediately below the point-of-contact information.
Does an email signature count?
Honestly: the rule does not say. Subsection (1) applies to “all advertising” with no medium limit, which reaches broadly. But the only explicitly electronic provision is confined to “advertising on a site on the Internet” — a website. Email addresses appear there only as an example of point-of-contact information on a website, not as a statement that an email is itself an advertisement.
We found no FREC declaratory statement or DBPR guidance treating an email or signature as advertising. So treat brokerage-name-in-your-signature as the conservative reading of a broad rule rather than a quoted requirement. If you are a REALTOR® member there is a cleaner hook anyway: NAR’s Standard of Practice 12-5 expressly covers advertising “in any medium (e.g., electronically, print, radio, television)” without disclosing the firm’s name.
State law vs. the NAR Code
Florida law and the NAR Code both require the firm’s name, and neither requires a licence number. The differences: NAR’s version explicitly covers electronic media, and it is enforced by your association rather than by FREC. Hold REALTOR® membership and both apply.
Sources: Fla. Admin. Code R. 61J2-10.025 (Advertising), eff. 5 Feb. 2007; R. 61J2-10.026 (Team or Group Advertising), eff. 1 Nov. 2021; R. 61J2-10.027; R. 61J2-10.034; Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(c); DBPR advertising guidance (updated Sept. 2025); NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified against the adopted rule text published by the Florida Department of State, September 2026.
What does your state actually require?
Pick a state. Every answer is taken from the current rule text and checked against that state’s own statute and regulations — not from a template, and not from the regulator’s summary of its own rules, which is wrong in twenty-six jurisdictions.
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Common questions
Does Florida require my real estate license number in my email signature?
No. The word “number” does not appear in Florida’s advertising rule, and the DBPR’s published answer on advertising requirements does not mention one. This is a genuine state-by-state difference — California and Texas require identifiers that Florida does not.
Is it true my name cannot be larger than my brokerage's name?
Not for individual agents. That rule was part of a 2018 proposal withdrawn in 2019 and never adopted. A relative-size rule does exist, but only in the team-advertising rule 61J2-10.026, where it governs the team name against the brokerage name.
Do I have to describe myself as a “Sales Associate”?
No specific title is required in Florida. The rule’s test is that reasonable persons would know they are dealing with a real estate licensee; a title is one straightforward way to satisfy that. (New York is the opposite — it bans that exact title.)
Can I use just my brokerage's logo instead of its name?
The adopted rule requires the licensed name of the brokerage firm. It was the withdrawn 2018 proposal that said “name or logo.” Include the name.
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