Maryland Real Estate Email Signature Rules — Your Broker's Phone Number Is Triggered by Your Email Address
Maryland has the most directly email-triggered rule in this series: a salesperson or associate broker may not use an individual email address in an advertisement unless the broker’s telephone number also appears. Since a signature block is an email address by definition, that provision is always live.
Step by step
Use your name as it appears on your license and pocket card
§ 17-527.2(b)(1): the licensee’s “name or designated name… as the name or designated name appears on the license certificate and pocket card” must be “meaningfully and conspicuously included.”
A nickname is fine — if the Commission approved it
Maryland has a formal mechanism most states lack. A “designated name” is a first name, nickname or last name other than your full legal name, approved by the Commission and printed on your licence and pocket card. Register it and it is statutorily sufficient.
Include the brokerage's FULL business name — a logo will not do
§ 17-527.2(b)(2) requires the affiliated business name to be meaningfully and conspicuously included, and to be “the full name of the business and not a logo used by the business.”
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The provision that always applies to a signature. COMAR 09.11.02.01G(3): an associate broker or salesperson “may not use an individual telephone number or email address in an advertisement unless the identified telephone number of the broker or branch office manager also appears in the advertisement.” In force since 1 October 2004.
Skip the license number — but get the category right if you use one
No licence number is required anywhere in the statute or COMAR. If you state a licence category, the only recognised options are Salesperson, Associate Broker or Broker. The Commission notes that terms such as “Associate” are not recognised categories.
Do not size anything — there is no size rule
The standard throughout is “meaningfully and conspicuously”. There is no font-size, point-size or proportion requirement anywhere in the subtitle for licensee advertising.
Team? Connect the name with one of four words
§ 17-547 requires team advertising to carry the brokerage name meaningfully and conspicuously, the name of at least one licensee member, and the broker’s or branch manager’s telephone number — and the team name must be “directly connected” to the brokerage name.
“Directly connected” has an exact definition
Maryland is unusually precise here, and the definition is in regulation rather than statute. Under COMAR 09.11.02.01G(5), the Commission considers a team name directly connected to the brokerage name if:
- the word “of”, “from”, “with” or “at” is the only word between the team name and the brokerage name; and
- no other word, symbol, or image appears between them.
So “The Smith Team at Acme Realty” works. A bullet, a dash, a pipe character or a logo sitting between the two does not. That is a real constraint on how a signature block is laid out, and it was added by an amendment effective 7 March 2022.
On the team name itself, § 17-547(a) bars “real estate”, “real estate brokerage”, or any other term suggesting the team offers brokerage services independent of the broker. Note also that using the words “and associates” is one of the things that makes you a team under § 17-543 — and therefore subject to all of § 17-547.
Where the Commission's own guidance diverges from the law
Maryland is the fifth state in this series where the regulator’s published guidance does not match its own rules. Four discrepancies, all current:
- The Teams guidance adds a banned word that is not in the statute. It lists “Realty” among prohibited team-name terms. § 17-547(a) bans “real estate” and “real estate brokerage” only, and “realty” appears nowhere in COMAR 09.11. It might fall under the catch-all — but it is not a listed term.
- The Teams guidance uses a stale definition of “team”, omitting the “and associates” trigger added to the statute effective 1 October 2019.
- The Advertising Checklist states the broker-phone requirement unconditionally. COMAR conditions it on the licensee using an individual phone number or email address. (For an email signature the distinction rarely matters — it always carries your address.)
- The 2005 Advice of Counsel cites a renumbered regulation. It cites COMAR 09.11.01.19 for trade names; that chapter was renumbered effective 1 June 2017 and it is now 09.11.01.16.
One further mismatch worth knowing because it works in your favour: the Checklist asks for your “full name exactly as it appears on your real estate license”, but the statute expressly permits an approved designated name. The checklist wording alone would mislead you into thinking a registered nickname is not allowed.
A subsection that never existed
If you see “§ 17-527.2(c)” cited as permitting advertising with the words “and associates” — there is no subsection (c). That language was in a 2019 bill as introduced and was struck before enactment. The section ends at (b)(2)(ii).
What actually happened is close to the opposite: “and associates” was added to the definition of a team, so using it does not grant an advertising permission — it pulls you into the team rules.
Does email count? Three separate answers, all yes
Maryland does not leave this to inference:
- § 17-527.2(a)(3)(ii) defines advertisement to include “any correspondence, mailing, newsletter, brochure, business card…”
- COMAR 09.11.02.01G(1) defines it as any representation, promotion or solicitation directed to consumers “by any means of communication”.
- G(3) names email addresses outright, as the trigger for the broker-telephone requirement.
There is also a one-click rule, but a narrow one. G(4) requires electronic media advertising to carry the disclosures in the first 25 percent of the main page — or, where the medium is capped at 280 characters or fewer, in the first 25 percent of a page one click away. An email signature has no character cap, so the link route is not available to it.
How current is this?
Stable. No bill enacted in the 2024, 2025 or 2026 sessions touched § 17-527.2, § 17-547 or any advertising-content requirement, and there is no pending advertising rulemaking. The most recent regulatory change in this area was the “directly connected” definition in March 2022.
An exception to a pattern in this series: Cornell’s copy of the Maryland regulation is accurate — the 25-percent rule, the 280-character rule and the “directly connected” test all match the official text.
State law vs. the NAR Code
Maryland’s requirements are enforced by the Commission, with penalties up to $5,000 per violation. Separately, one point of Maryland law worth noting on titles: there is no general requirement to state your licence category in advertising — that is settled by a published Advice of Counsel, which reads the disclosure duty as reaching licensees advertising property for their own account. NAR’s Standards of Practice 12-5 and 12-9 are membership obligations enforced by your association, not by the Commission.
Sources: Md. Code Ann., Bus. Occ. & Prof. §§ 17-322(b)(18)–(20), (c), 17-527.2, 17-527.3, 17-543 to 17-548; COMAR 09.11.01.16, 09.11.02.01G (“directly connected” test added eff. 7 Mar. 2022), 09.11.01.23; Maryland Real Estate Commission Advertising Checklist (2026), Teams guidance, and Advice of Counsel of 23 Nov. 2005; NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified against the Maryland General Assembly's published statutes and the Division of State Documents' official COMAR, 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.
Three required elements, one signature
Your name as licensed, the brokerage’s full name rather than its logo, and your broker’s telephone number — triggered every time by your own email address. Autograph builds it once, installs it into Apple Mail in one click, and sets up your iPhone by QR code.
Download Autograph free See the templatesCommon questions
Why does my Maryland email signature need my broker's phone number?
Because your email address triggers it. COMAR 09.11.02.01G(3) says an associate broker or salesperson “may not use an individual telephone number or email address in an advertisement unless the identified telephone number of the broker or branch office manager also appears.” A signature block carries your email address by definition, so the requirement is always engaged.
Can I use my brokerage's logo instead of writing out the name?
No. The statute is explicit that the business name must be “the full name of the business and not a logo used by the business.” A logo may accompany the name; it cannot replace it.
Can I use a nickname in my Maryland advertising?
Yes, if you register it. Maryland has a formal “designated name” mechanism — a first name, nickname or last name approved by the Commission and printed on your licence certificate and pocket card. The Commission’s own checklist asks for your “full name”, which understates what the statute allows.
How exactly must a team name connect to the brokerage name?
By one of four words and nothing else. The Commission treats a team name as “directly connected” only where “of”, “from”, “with” or “at” is the only word between the two, and no other word, symbol, or image sits between them. A dash, a pipe or a logo in that gap breaks it.
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