Texas Real Estate Email Signature Requirements (TREC Rules + the IABS Trap, 2026)
Texas has the most specific email-signature rules of any state, and one of them is a prohibition that catches almost everybody: the IABS link may not go in your signature block. Here is what TREC requires, what it forbids, and the size rule that is measured, not eyeballed.
Step by step
Include your name or your registered team name
22 TAC § 535.155(a)(1) requires “the name of the license holder or team placing the advertisement,” in a readily noticeable location. A registered team name alone satisfies this part.
Include your broker's name at a measured size
§ 535.155(a)(2): the broker’s name must be “in at least half the size of the largest contact information for any sales agent, associated broker, or team name.” This is a ratio, not a judgement call — and a big phone number or website in your signature raises the floor the broker’s name has to clear.
Do NOT put the IABS link in your signature
22 TAC § 531.20(d) is explicit: “The link to a completed IABS Notice may not be in a footnote or signature block in an email.” It belongs in the body of the email, above the signature, with a specific reference to it in the text.
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Download freeUnlock Pro — one-time, no subscriptionSkip the license number — TREC says it is not required
TREC’s own FAQ answers this in one word. Asked “Is a license holder required to put their license number on a sign or other advertising?” the published answer is “No.” Texas is not California here.
Use only a name registered with TREC
The broker’s name means the name on the licence, a registered alternate name, or an assumed business name that is registered with the Commission first. Any name an individual sales agent uses other than their licensed or registered alternate name is treated as a team name and must be registered by the broker before it appears in advertising.
Get your title right — “REALTOR” is not enough
If your surname appears in the broker’s name, TREC requires “sales agent” next to your name to distinguish your licence status — and states that using “REALTOR” or “agent” is insufficient. An associated broker may not call themselves simply “broker”; use associated broker, broker associate or associate broker.
Team name? It has to end in “team” or “group”
§ 535.154(c)(2) requires exactly that, and the name may not imply the team is a separate brokerage. Terms like “brokerage”, “company” and “associates” are treated as misleading.
The IABS trap
This is the single most-broken rule in Texas real estate email, because the natural place to put a standing link is precisely where the rule forbids it.
The permitted routes are set out in § 531.20(c): personal delivery, first class mail or overnight carrier, in the body of an email, or as an attachment or a link within the body — with a specific reference to the IABS Notice in the body text. TREC’s current guidance puts it plainly: insert the hyperlink in the body of the email above the signature line and mention that you have included it.
TREC adds a formatting point in its IABS facts sheet: where the IABS is delivered by a link in an email, the link and its reference must “look like the rest of the text in the body of the email (not smaller or a lighter color).” So the usual trick — shrinking it to grey 9px so it does not spoil the layout — is out too.
Note for 2026: a new IABS form took effect 1 January 2026 under Senate Bill 1968 and is required from that date. If your link still points at the previous form, replace it.
Email is advertising — with one real exception
§ 535.155(b)(1) defines an advertisement to include “all electronic media including email, text messages, social media, the Internet, business stationery, business cards, displays, signs and billboards.” No ambiguity, unlike most states.
But the same definition carves out “a communication from a license holder to the license holder’s current client.” So email to an existing client is not advertising. In practice nobody maintains two signatures and swaps them by recipient, so build the compliant one and use it everywhere.
One more distinction worth knowing: TREC does not consider a URL or email address to be an advertisement in itself — but it will consider an advertisement in its entirety, and an address or URL that implies a sales agent is responsible for a brokerage is a violation.
A rule that is often quoted backwards
You may see it claimed that a Texas licensee’s own name must be at least as large as the team name. There is no such rule. The only size requirement in either advertising rule runs the other way — the broker’s name against the largest contact information. Indeed § 535.155(a)(1) allows a team name alone to satisfy the first requirement.
Similarly, TREC’s own published slide deck reviewing the advertising rules is the pre-2018 version and still lists “realty” among the banned team-name terms. The September 2018 amendment removed it. The current prohibition targets terms implying independence from the sponsoring broker — brokerage, company, associates and the like.
Why your broker cares about this
Because they are on the hook. TREC states that a sponsoring broker is responsible for ensuring a sales agent’s advertising complies, that both can be disciplined for a violation, and that brokers must maintain current written policies to ensure each sponsored agent complies with the advertising rules. A non-compliant signature is itself the sanctionable act: § 535.155(d)(2) deems advertising “that does not comply with this section” to be misleading advertising.
State law vs. the NAR Code
TREC’s test is quantitative — the half-size ratio. NAR’s Standard of Practice 12-5 is qualitative: disclose the firm’s name in a “reasonable and readily apparent manner.” They are independent obligations enforced by different bodies, and a Texas REALTOR® must satisfy both.
Sources: 22 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 535.154, 535.155 (advertising), §§ 531.18, 531.20 (Consumer Protection and IABS notices); Tex. Occ. Code § 1101.652(b)(23); TREC published FAQs and IABS guidance, including the 2026 IABS form change under SB 1968; NAR 2026 Code of Ethics. Verified September 2026 against TREC's own guidance and two independent full-text mirrors of the Texas Administrative Code — the Secretary of State's own rule viewer has been retired and its replacement could not be read programmatically, so confirm the rule text with your broker before relying on it.
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.
Compliant in the signature, correct in the body
Autograph builds your Texas signature with the broker’s name at the right relative size and nothing in it that does not belong — then installs it into Apple Mail in one click and onto your iPhone by QR code, so the compliant version is the one that actually sends.
Download Autograph free See the templatesCommon questions
Can I put the IABS link in my email signature?
No. 22 TAC § 531.20(d) states the link to a completed IABS Notice “may not be in a footnote or signature block in an email.” Put it in the body of the email above your signature, with a specific reference to it in the text, and formatted like the rest of the body — not smaller or lighter.
Does Texas require my license number in my email signature?
No. TREC’s published FAQ asks exactly this and answers “No.” Neither advertising rule contains the phrase as a requirement. You may include it voluntarily; it is not compelled.
How big does my broker's name have to be?
At least half the size of the largest contact information for any sales agent, associated broker or team name in the advertisement. Contact information is defined broadly — name, phone, email, website, social handle, scan code. So an oversized phone number in your signature raises the size the broker’s name must meet.
Is “REALTOR®” enough to show I'm a sales agent?
No. Where a sales agent’s surname appears in the broker’s name, TREC requires “sales agent” next to the agent’s name and states that using “REALTOR” or “agent” is insufficient to distinguish licence status. Separately, an associated broker may not advertise as simply “broker.”
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