South Carolina Real Estate Advertising Rules — the Team Name Change, and a Live Law-vs-Regulation Conflict
South Carolina requires one thing in your advertising — the brokerage’s full registered name. But its team rules are in an unusual state: a statute that changes on 15 May 2027, a regulation from May 2026 that already imposes the 2027 standard, and Commission guidance issued a month after that regulation saying compliance is optional.
Step by step
Identify the brokerage firm's full name
§ 40-57-135(E)(2)(a): when advertising real estate services in any medium, a licensee must clearly “identify the full name of the real estate brokerage firm with which the licensee is employed and supervised.” That is the whole mandatory content list.
Use the name as registered with the Commission
The new Reg. 105-6(A)(1), effective 22 May 2026, tightens it: the full name “as registered with the Commission” — not a casual short form — and licensees “must display and promote that they are directly connected to the brokerage firm.”
Put the name in as text, not just a link
The statute allows an electronic advertisement to meet the requirement “by including a link from the advertisement to the homepage of the brokerage firm.” But that sits awkwardly beside the newer regulation’s duty to display and promote the connection. No Commission interpretation reconciles them — so put the brokerage name in your signature as visible text and the question does not arise.
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Verified: the phrase appears zero times in the whole of Title 40, Chapter 57, and is absent from the new advertising regulation. Of twenty-three states checked, only California and Nevada require one.
Register any nickname first
§ 40-57-135(C)(3): “Alternative names may be utilized following confirmation of registration of the name with the commission.” An “alternative name” is a first name other than your legal first name used for marketing — so a nickname in a signature needs registering.
Do not call yourself a salesperson — that classification is gone
The 2024 Act replaced “salesperson” with “associate” throughout, and renamed the chapter accordingly. The classifications are now broker-in-charge, broker, associate, property manager-in-charge and property manager.
Team leaders: not owner, not CEO, not president
Commission guidance is explicit that a team leader “may not advertise themselves as owner, CEO, president, or other similar title” as misleading — supported by Reg. 105-7(C), under which “the team leader is not a licensed status or a position recognized by the Commission.” They may use “Team Leader”. Note this is guidance-derived, not statutory text.
The team rules: three instruments, two answers
This is the part worth reading carefully, because the code currently publishes two versions of the same section side by side.
In force now, until 15 May 2027 — § 40-57-360(E): team names may not include the terms “realty”, “real estate”, “realtors”, or similar terms suggesting a brokerage. Team advertising must show the team name and the firm’s full name conspicuously.
From 15 May 2027 — the replacement § 40-57-360: the team name “may not be more than twice the size, prominence, or frequency” of the brokerage’s full name, and team names must end in “[team name] team at [name of real estate brokerage firm]”.
Note the direction of travel is the reverse of how it is usually reported: the word ban is current law now and disappears in 2027, replaced by the mandatory suffix format.
And the regulation already says what the statute will say in 2027
Reg. 105-6(A)(1), effective 22 May 2026, already imposes both 2027 standards — the twice-the-size limit and the “[team name] team at [brokerage]” format — in mandatory terms.
But the Commission’s own guidance document, dated 17 June 2026 — a month after that regulation took effect — tells licensees that changes made before 15 May 2027 which comply with the 2027 version “will not result in disciplinary action”, and that all advertising “on or after May 15, 2027, must comply”.
The guidance frames early compliance as optional and merely safe. The Commission’s own regulation says must. The guidance never mentions Reg. 105-6.
The practical resolution is easy, and we would not wait: adopt “[Team Name] Team at [Full Brokerage Name]” and the twice-the-size limit now. That satisfies the regulation, satisfies the 2027 statute, and is expressly non-disciplinable under the guidance. Doing nothing satisfies only the guidance.
Every citation to Chapter 105 broke in May 2026
South Carolina renumbered its entire real estate regulation chapter, and the collision is unlucky:
- “105-6” before May 2026 meant Course Curriculum.
- “105-6” today means Advertising of Real Estate Services.
Any undated citation to “S.C. Code Regs. 105-6” is ambiguous. And before May 2026, Chapter 105 contained no licensee advertising regulation at all — 105-6 is the first one South Carolina has ever had.
Does email count? Yes — but not because of the rule that says “emails”
The requirement applies to advertising “in any medium”, and the statute expressly contemplates “the Internet or another electronic media”. So a marketing email carries the brokerage-name duty.
But email is not named anywhere in South Carolina’s licensee advertising provisions. This is not a Colorado or Tennessee.
One more provision that is narrower than it looks
§ 40-57-135(F)(1) requires a licensee to reveal their licence status “in advertising or marketing in any media” — but only “in a personal transaction” involving their own purchase, sale, exchange, rental, lease or auction of real estate. It is not a general status-disclosure rule for ordinary advertising or email signatures, though it is frequently presented as one.
State law vs. the NAR Code
South Carolina’s requirement is the brokerage’s registered full name. NAR’s Standard of Practice 12-5 asks members to disclose the firm name “in a reasonable and readily apparent manner” — a membership obligation enforced by associations, not by the Commission. Local MLS participant-identification rules are contractual again. Keep the three apart: only the first can cost you your licence.
Sources: S.C. Code Ann. §§ 40-57-20, 40-57-30, 40-57-110, 40-57-135(C), (E), (F), 40-57-360 (both the version in force and the version effective 15 May 2027), 40-57-710; 2024 Act No. 204 (ratified 15 May 2024, with delayed-effect provisions); S.C. Code Regs. 105-6 (Advertising) and 105-7 (Teams), effective 22 May 2026 (Reg. Doc. No. 5437, S.C. State Register Vol. 50, Issue 5); S.C. Real Estate Commission team-name guidance of 17 June 2026; NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified against scstatehouse.gov, llr.sc.gov and the S.C. State Register, 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.
The registered name, displayed not just linked
South Carolina wants the brokerage’s registered full name shown, and a team name formatted to match it. Autograph builds the signature once to the format your broker approves, installs it into Apple Mail in one click, and sets up your iPhone by QR code.
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Do South Carolina team names have to end in “Team at [Brokerage]” yet?
It depends which instrument you read, and they disagree. The statute imposing that format takes effect 15 May 2027. But Reg. 105-6, effective 22 May 2026, already requires it. And the Commission’s own guidance of June 2026 says early compliance merely “will not result in disciplinary action.” Adopt the format now — it satisfies all three, and the alternative satisfies only the guidance.
Can a South Carolina team name include the word “Realty”?
Not right now. The version of § 40-57-360 in force bans “realty”, “real estate” and “realtors” in team names. That ban disappears on 15 May 2027, replaced by the mandatory “team at [brokerage]” suffix. Most write-ups have this backwards.
Does South Carolina require my license number in advertising?
No. The phrase appears zero times in Title 40 Chapter 57 and is absent from the new advertising regulation. Of twenty-three states checked, only California and Nevada require one.
Is it enough to link to my brokerage's homepage?
The statute says an electronic advertisement may satisfy the firm-name requirement by linking to the brokerage’s homepage. But the newer regulation requires you to “display and promote” the connection to the firm, which reads as visible text, and nothing reconciles the two. Put the name in the signature and rely on the link only as a supplement.
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