Georgia Real Estate Email Signature Requirements (and the Team Rule That Was Never Adopted)
Georgia’s advertising rule names email in its list of media, and even “email farming”. It also has a size rule that adds a word almost no other state uses — frequency — and, despite what you will read everywhere, no adopted team-name rule at all.
Step by step
Advertise in your firm's name, not your own
Rule 520-1-.09(2.1): “All advertising by associate brokers, salespersons, and community association managers must be under the direct supervision of their broker and in the name of their firm.” Paragraph (8) puts it as a prohibition too — affiliated licensees are “prohibited from advertising under the licensee’s individual name.”
Use the firm name as registered with the Commission
Not the trade name alone. Under 520-1-.09(6)(a), a firm using a trade name or operating as a franchisee must “clearly and unmistakably include the firm’s name as registered with the Commission in a manner reasonably calculated to attract the attention of the public.”
Size it equal or greater — and note the third word
520-1-.09(7)(b): the firm’s name must appear “in equal or greater size, prominence, and frequency” than the name of any affiliated licensee or group of licensees. Frequency is unusual — if your own name appears three times in a signature, the firm name cannot appear once.
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Download freeUnlock Pro — one-time, no subscriptionA logo counts here — if the name is in it
520-1-.09(7)(d) settles what several states leave ambiguous: “whether contained in a logo or standing alone, the name of the firm must be in equal or greater size, prominence, and frequency…” So a logo carrying the registered firm name does the job in Georgia.
Make sure you are identifiable as a licensee
520-1-.09(10) is a catch-all worth reading as written: “Notwithstanding any other provision of this Rule, a licensee shall make every reasonable attempt in advertising to assure the public knows that they are being contacted by a licensee.” That phrasing — contacted, not just shown a listing — is why a signature matters here.
Skip the license number for routine email
Georgia does not require one in ordinary advertising. The only place a number appears is the legend for advertising your own property, and even there it is one of two options: either “seller… holds a real estate license” or “Georgia Real Estate License #” with your six-digit number — abbreviable to “GA R. E. Lic.”
Advertising a specific property? Add the firm phone — a particular one
When you advertise specific real estate, 520-1-.09(7)(c) requires the firm’s telephone number at equal or greater size, prominence and frequency — and it “must be a number at which the public can reach a broker or a manager of the firm without going through the affiliated licensee(s) listed in the advertisement.” Your own mobile number does not satisfy it.
Email is named in the rule — along with “email farming”
Georgia’s definition of “media” at 520-1-.09(1)(b) is one of the most exhaustive in the country. It includes business cards, billboards, signs, newsletters, voicemail, email, facsimile transmissions, websites, blogs, video blogs, listing databases, email farming, news groups, discussion lists, bulletin boards, social networking and social media, and instant text messages.
There is also a practical provision for short-form messages: 520-1-.09(5)(a) says that when advertising “in electronic messages of limited information or characters,” the licensee shall provide a direct link to a display that complies with the rule.
Georgia has no team rule — whatever you have read
This is the most common error about Georgia advertising, and it is a striking one.
You will find text circulating as Georgia law saying a team name must include the word “team”, “group”, “partners” or “associates”, and may not contain “Brokerage”, “Broker”, “Company”, “Corporation”, “Firm”, “Incorporated”, “Inc.” or “LLC”.
That rule was never adopted. GREC formally proposed a teams rule twice in 2021 — a definitions amendment noticed in May and an “Advertising as Teams” provision noticed in September. Neither was adopted, and GREC’s own legislation page currently lists nothing under Proposed or Pending.
The words “team” and “team leader” do not appear anywhere in Chapter 520-1. The only thing the adopted rule says about teams is indirect: the size-parity requirements apply against affiliated licensees “or groups of licensees”.
Practical effect: a Georgia team name is governed by the general requirements — the firm’s registered name at equal or greater size, prominence and frequency, and broker approval — not by the naming conventions other states impose.
How stable is this?
Unusually stable. Rule 520-1-.09 was last amended effective 1 May 2014, and the definitions rule 520-1-.02 effective 1 July 2017. The only GREC rule changes in 2024–2026 were to broker continuing education, effective 1 July 2025 — nothing touching advertising. The Secretary of State’s rules site shows the text current through filings to August 2026.
Two sourcing cautions if you go looking yourself: a document titled “GREC Marketing & Advertising Guide” circulates widely but is published by a private real estate school, not the Commission; and one copy of GREC’s own advertising flyer still carries a 2008 date stamp, so use the 2023 “At A Glance” refresh.
State law vs. the NAR Code
Georgia’s rule is the enforceable one. NAR’s Article 12 asks REALTOR® members to ensure their status as real estate professionals is readily apparent — which reads very close to Georgia’s (10) — and SoP 12-5 requires disclosing the firm’s name in any medium. But SoP 12-9 asks for the firm’s name and state(s) of licensure on websites, and Georgia law has no equivalent. That one is owed to your association, not to GREC.
Sources: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 520-1-.09 (Advertising), last amended eff. 1 May 2014; r. 520-1-.02; r. 520-1-.06; O.C.G.A. §§ 43-40-25, 43-40-30; GREC FAQ and “Advertising Rules At A Glance” (rev. 2023); GREC rulemaking notices of 13 May 2021 and 8 Sept. 2021 (neither adopted); NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified against the Georgia Secretary of State's published rules, current through filings to 14 August 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.
In the firm's name, every time
Georgia requires your firm’s registered name at equal or greater size, prominence and frequency — on every device. Autograph builds it once, installs it into Apple Mail in one click, and sets up your iPhone by QR code so the mobile signature carries the same firm name rather than stripping back to your own.
Download Autograph free See the templatesCommon questions
Does Georgia have rules about what a team can be called?
No adopted ones. GREC proposed a team-naming rule twice in 2021 — requiring the word “team”, “group”, “partners” or “associates” and banning “Brokerage”, “Company”, “Inc.” and similar — but neither proposal was adopted, and that text still circulates as though it were law. The words “team” and “team leader” appear nowhere in Chapter 520-1.
Does Georgia require my license number in my email signature?
No. There is no general licence-number requirement in the advertising rule or in the statute. The only place a number appears is the legend for advertising property you own yourself, and even there it is an alternative to simply stating that you hold a real estate licence.
What does “equal or greater frequency” mean?
It means the count matters, not just the size. Georgia requires the firm’s name at “equal or greater size, prominence, and frequency” than any affiliated licensee’s name. If your name appears twice in a signature block — once as a heading and once in a sign-off — the firm name needs to appear at least as often.
Can my brokerage's logo carry the firm name requirement?
In Georgia, yes. The rule says “whether contained in a logo or standing alone,” the firm name must meet the size, prominence and frequency test. So a logo that contains the registered firm name works — a logo that is only a symbol does not.
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