Florida was the number one destination to which people moved to in the past year, gaining an estimated 300,000 new residents from Spring of 2020 to Spring of 2021. With all these new residents, the Florida real estate market has skyrocketed, and if you are a realtor in Florida, specifically South Florida, you are likely taking advantage of this boom in the market with different advertisements and marketing techniques.
With this being said, it is important to know what the restrictions are for realtors or brokers on advertising in Florida.
What are the ad restrictions on advertising for individual realtors or brokers?
Generally, any ads may not include any false, fraudulent, or misleading information. It follows from this that the agent cannot advertise property if the seller does not intend to sell the property as advertised nor can they advertise a property at a price if the seller has no intent to sell it at the specified price.
The ads must also make it clear to a third party that they are dealing with a real estate licensee. Additionally, ads must include the name of the licensed brokerage firm which the realtor or broker is working under. This applies whether they are physical ads posted out in the public or internet ads on websites.
If an agent intends to use a nickname in an ad, they must put the nickname in quotation marks after their first name or first initial. However, any agent that uses their last name must use the last name that is registered with the FL Real Estate commission.
What are the ad restrictions on advertising for groups or teams of realtors or brokers?
As for group advertising, Florida real estate advertising Administrative Code Rule 61J2.10.026 is the new law that took effect in July 2019 which governs team advertising. Under this law, any team or group advertising must have a designated licensee to be responsible for ensuring that the group advertising is in compliance with chapter 475, FL Statutes, and division 61J2, FL Administrative code. Furthermore, the registered broker for the team must maintain a current record of each team’s members at least once a month. There are specific restrictions regulation team or group names. For example, Real estate team or group names can include the word “team” or “group” as part of the name but, real estate team or group names cannot include the following words: (1) Agency (2) Associates (3) Brokerage (4) Brokers (5) Company (6) Corporation (7) Corp. (8) Inc. (9) LLC (10) LP, LLP or Partnership (11) Properties (12) Property (13) Real Estate (14) Realty (15) Or any similar words that might suggest that the team or group is a separate real estate brokerage or company. In the ad, the name of the team must not be bigger than the name of the registered broker.
