Minnesota Real Estate Advertising Rules (§ 82.69) — the Prominence Rule Was Repealed in 2019
Minnesota’s advertising law is the shortest in this series — one mandatory element, the brokerage name. The famous requirement that it be more prominent than yours was repealed in 2019, and the administrative rules chapter people still cite was repealed in 2004.
Step by step
Display the brokerage name, clearly and conspicuously
Minn. Stat. § 82.69(a), in full: “Any advertising by a licensee must clearly and conspicuously display the real estate brokerage name.” That is the entire general requirement.
Do not size anything — there is nothing to rank
There is no prominence or relative-size rule in Minnesota law. The one that existed was repealed in 2019 (see below). “Clearly and conspicuously” is undefined — no font size, no placement, no ratio.
Conduct business under your broker's licensed name
§ 82.68, subd. 1: “A salesperson shall only conduct business under the licensed name of and on behalf of the broker to whom the salesperson is licensed.” An individual broker likewise uses the brokerage’s licensed name.
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Download freeUnlock Pro — one-time, no subscriptionSkip the license number
Verified by searching the whole of chapter 82: the phrase “license number” appears zero times. Of twenty-one states checked, only California and Nevada require one.
Team name? Get your broker's authorisation
Minnesota does have a team rule, and it has exactly two conditions. Under § 82.69(b) a team or group name may be included only if (1) its inclusion is authorised by the primary broker, and (2) the brokerage name is clearly and conspicuously displayed.
Do not claim memberships you do not hold
§ 82.81, subd. 12(a)(7) makes it a fraudulent or dishonest practice to “represent membership in any real estate-related organization in which the licensee is not a member.” That is the state hook on REALTOR® and similar marks.
Two repeals that still circulate
“The brokerage name must be more prominently displayed than the licensee’s name.” This was the law from 2014, and it was struck effective 1 August 2019. The amending act’s own title was “An act relating to commerce; modifying advertising requirements related to real estate brokers and licensees.” Both the licensee-name and team-name comparatives were replaced with the flat “clearly and conspicuously”. It remains one of the most-repeated claims about Minnesota.
“A licensee must identify as a broker or salesperson in every advertisement.” That was Minn. R. 2805.1400 — repealed in 2004. In fact the entire rules chapter 2805 is repealed. Minnesota has no administrative rules on real estate advertising whatsoever; chapter 82 is the only source.
A telling artefact of the 2019 repeal: the state REALTOR® association’s widely-circulated advertising guidance contains a botched find-and-replace, reading “the brokerage name must be clearly and conspicuously displayed than the salesperson’s name.” That stranded “than” is the fossil of the deleted comparative — and it preserves the repealed meaning in a document agents still rely on.
Where the licence-number myth comes from — confirmed
Minnesota gives an unusually clean answer to a question that has dogged several states in this series.
The Department of Commerce licenses mortgage loan originators as well as real estate licensees. And Minn. Stat. § 58A.20 does require a number in advertising:
“The unique identifier of any person originating a residential mortgage loan shall be clearly shown on all residential mortgage loan application forms, solicitations, or advertisements, including business cards or websites…”
That is chapter 58A — mortgage originators — not chapter 82. It is the only number-in-advertising rule at Minnesota Commerce touching housing, and its language about business cards and websites is exactly what gets misattributed to real estate agents.
Does an email signature count?
Minnesota is quiet here, and the page should not pretend otherwise. Searching the whole of chapter 82: “email” and “e-mail” appear zero times, as do “social media” and “website”. The single occurrence of “Internet” concerns continuing-education delivery.
“Advertising” is also not defined in the chapter’s definitions section. The only definition of the word anywhere in chapter 82 is expressly limited to the listing-agreement section and covers yard signs.
What the statute does say is “Any advertising by a licensee”, which is medium-neutral and reads naturally onto a signature block that promotes you. But no Minnesota statute, rule or Department guidance says so, and there is no enforcement action we could find interpreting it for electronic media. Treat it as the sensible reading rather than a cited requirement.
The Department miscites its own statute
Minnesota is the seventh state in this series where the regulator’s published material does not match its own law. The Department’s mandatory continuing-education module matrix for 2024/2025 lists the curriculum topic as “Advertising (82.68)”.
Advertising is § 82.69. In the same document, “Material Facts” is cited to § 82.71, which is actually “Negotiations” — the citations are shifted by a section. The following year’s module corrects the material-facts citation and drops the advertising topic, but the 2024/25 document is still served from the state’s own site.
Beyond that matrix, the Department publishes no advertising FAQ, bulletin or compliance guide for real estate at all.
Minnesota does have a team rule — just a very short one
Worth stating plainly, because six states in this series turned out to have none: Minnesota’s statute does use the words “team or group”. But the rule is only the two conditions above — broker authorisation, and the brokerage name displayed.
Neither “team” nor “group” is defined. There is no required word in a team name, no banned words, no registration, and — since the 2019 repeal — no requirement that the brokerage name outrank the team name.
How current is this?
The last substantive change was 2019. The Revisor’s version history shows entries in 2024 and 2025, but both are editorial rather than legislative, and the section number is unchanged.
One search caution: queries combining “Minnesota” and “chapter 82” surface Laws 2026, chapter 82, which concerns common interest communities. That is a session-law chapter number, unrelated to statutory chapter 82.
State law vs. the NAR Code
Because Minnesota asks for so little, most of what agents believe they must do comes from elsewhere. The REALTOR® trademark rules, NAR’s Article 12 and Standards of Practice, and MLS advertising rules are all private, contractual obligations of members — enforced by the association and the MLS, not by Minnesota Commerce. A Minnesota licensee who is not a member has no state obligation to any of them.
Sources: Minn. Stat. §§ 82.55, 82.66, 82.68, 82.69 (Advertising Requirements; comparative-prominence language repealed by Laws 2019, ch. 30, § 1, eff. 1 Aug. 2019), 82.81, 645.02, and § 58A.20 (mortgage originators, for contrast); Minn. R. ch. 2805 (repealed 2004); Minnesota Department of Commerce continuing-education module matrices; NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified against the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes' published text (2025 edition), 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.
One requirement, met on every device
Minnesota asks for the brokerage name, clearly and conspicuously — which is exactly what a phone-typed signature tends to drop. Autograph builds it once, installs it into Apple Mail in one click, and sets up your iPhone by QR code so the brokerage name goes with it.
Download Autograph free See the templatesCommon questions
Does the brokerage name have to be more prominent than mine in Minnesota?
No — not since 1 August 2019. The comparative requirement was struck by the legislature that year and replaced with “clearly and conspicuously”. There is now no prominence or relative-size rule of any kind. The old version is still widely quoted, including in a state trade-association document whose text visibly survives the edit.
Which section is Minnesota's advertising statute?
§ 82.69. It is often given as § 82.68 — including in the Department of Commerce’s own continuing-education module matrix — but § 82.68 is “Other Disclosure Requirements”. And Minn. R. ch. 2805, still cited as the advertising rules, was repealed in its entirety in 2004.
Does Minnesota require my license number in advertising?
No. The phrase does not appear anywhere in chapter 82. The confusion is traceable: Minnesota Commerce also licenses mortgage loan originators, and § 58A.20 does require a unique identifier on advertisements “including business cards or websites”. That is the mortgage chapter, not the real estate one.
What are Minnesota's team name rules?
Only two conditions: your primary broker must authorise including the team or group name, and the brokerage name must be clearly and conspicuously displayed. There is no required word, no banned word, no registration, and since 2019 no requirement that the brokerage name outrank the team name.
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