California treats the website you own and run as advertising. Under the Real Estate Commissioner's Regulations, 10 CCR § 2773(a), a website "owned, controlled, and/or maintained by the soliciting real estate licensee" is solicitation material intended to be the first point of contact with consumers — so it must disclose your eight-digit DRE license identification number and your responsible broker's name as currently licensed. Including the broker's license number is optional. If the site names more than one licensee, every named licensee's license number has to appear.
Below is what the primary sources actually say, with citations you can check yourself. Where we could not verify something, we say so instead of guessing.
Rule: 10 CCR § 2773(a) (Regulations of the Real Estate Commissioner, Title 10, Ch. 6, Art. 9). The regulation requires a licensee to "disclose its, his or her eight (8) digit real estate license identification number and responsible broker's name as currently licensed, and may, but is not required to, also include the responsible broker's license identification number, on all solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers." The enumerated list of those materials expressly includes "(3) Websites owned, controlled, and/or maintained by the soliciting real estate licensee."
Type size: the same regulation adds that "[i]f the advertising is in written form, the type size of the license identification number shall be no smaller than the smallest size type used in the solicitation material." Practically: don't bury the license number in text smaller than anything else on the page.
Effective date: the current version of § 2773 took effect 3/28/2019, per the California Office of Administrative Law's Notice of Approval, OAL Matter No. 2019-0213-01.
The statute behind it: Bus. & Prof. Code § 10140.6(b)(1) requires a licensee to disclose "their name, license identification number … and responsible broker's identity … on all solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers," and § 10140.6(b)(3) defines solicitation materials to include "advertisements on television, in print, or electronic media." Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 511, Sec. 48 (SB 1495), effective January 1, 2023.
Bus. & Prof. Code § 10015.4 defines the responsible broker's identity as the name under which the responsible broker is currently licensed and conducts business, and states that it "does not include a fictitious business name obtained pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 10159.5 or the use of a team name pursuant to Section 10159.6." Added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 285, Sec. 6 (AB 2884), effective January 1, 2019.
So a header that reads only "The Reyes Group" does not satisfy the broker-identity requirement. The brokerage's licensed name has to be there too.
Display: Bus. & Prof. Code § 10159.6 requires that advertising and solicitation materials containing a team name — "including print or electronic media and 'for sale' signage" — "include, and display in a conspicuous and prominent manner, the team name and the name and license number of at least one of the licensed members of the team." Subdivision (b): "The responsible broker's identity shall be displayed as prominently and conspicuously as the team name." Subdivision (c): the materials "shall not contain terms that imply the existence of a real estate entity independent of the responsible broker." Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 285, Sec. 38 (AB 2884), effective January 1, 2019.
The name itself: Bus. & Prof. Code § 10159.7(a)(3) sets what a qualifying team name (used by two or more licensees, and not requiring its own fictitious-business-name license) must look like. It must include "the surname of at least one of the licensee members of the team, group, or association in conjunction with the term 'associates,' 'group,' or 'team,'" and must not include "'real estate broker,' 'real estate brokerage,' 'broker,' or 'brokerage' or any other term that would lead a member of the public to believe that the team is offering real estate brokerage services." Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 285, Sec. 39 (AB 2884), effective January 1, 2019.
Bus. & Prof. Code § 10159.5, subdivision (d): advertising and solicitation materials using a fictitious business name, "including business cards, print or electronic media and 'for sale' signage … shall include the responsible broker's identity … in a manner equally as prominent as the fictitious business name." Subdivision (e) adds that the materials "shall include the name and license number of the salesperson who is using the fictitious business name." Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 511, Sec. 55 (SB 1495), effective January 1, 2023.
Two related points from the same primary sources: 10 CCR § 2731(a) says "[a] licensee shall not use a fictitious name in the conduct of any activity for which a license is required under the Real Estate Law unless the licensee is the holder of a license bearing the fictitious name," and § 10159.5(a)(2)(B) contemplates the DBA application being signed by the responsible broker requesting the department's approval. Section 10159.5(b)(1) also provides that a salesperson using an authorized fictitious business name "shall use that name only as permitted by the responsible broker." (The DRE publication of § 2731 shows no effective or amendment date.)
Bus. & Prof. Code § 10140.8 was added by Stats. 2025, Ch. 497, Sec. 1 (AB 723), effective January 1, 2026.
The section applies to a "digitally altered image," which subdivision (b)(1) defines as an image created by or at the direction of the real estate broker or salesperson, or a person acting on their behalf. Where it applies, the licensee must "include in the advertisement or promotional material a statement disclosing that the image has been altered and a link to a publicly accessible internet website, URL, or QR code that includes, and clearly identifies, the original, unaltered image. The statement shall be reasonably conspicuous and located on or adjacent to the image." Subdivision (a)(2) adds that if the material "is posted on an internet website over which the real estate broker or salesperson … has control, they shall include the unaltered version of the images."
Read the section directly before relying on it — it is short, and it defines its own scope, including what routine adjustments fall outside "digitally altered."
We did not find a California statute or DRE regulation that requires a licensee to get advance broker approval of a personal website as such. What the law does regulate is the broker's side of it. 10 CCR § 2725 states that reasonable supervision "includes, as appropriate, the establishment of policies, rules, procedures and systems to review, oversee, inspect and manage: … (e) Advertising of any service for which a license is required," and that "[a] responsible broker shall establish a system for monitoring compliance with such policies, rules, procedures and systems." (No effective or amendment date is shown in the DRE publication.)
One exception worth flagging: if your site uses a fictitious business name, § 10159.5(b)(1) says the salesperson "shall use that name only as permitted by the responsible broker" — so broker permission is required by statute in that case.
In practice, whether you need sign-off is set by your brokerage's own written policy, and your broker is accountable for what your site says. Ask them before you publish.
We searched the full text of California's Real Estate Law and the Commissioner's Regulations and found nothing that specifically addresses a licensee's domain name or URL. We make no claim either way about domain-name rules — if you have a domain question, take it to your broker or the DRE.
We also did not research NAR, MLS, or local association advertising rules, fair housing advertising requirements, or the separate mortgage-advertising rules that apply if you also originate loans. Those are real and separate from the above.
Concretely, on the page itself:
Most of this is text you write once and leave in the footer. It does not require special software.
We build one-page websites for agents: free to publish with a small badge in the footer, or a one-time $297 to own it outright on your own domain, with no monthly fee and no IDX or MLS search. The brokerage name, your license number, and any team or DBA disclosures are content you add to your own site — we don't add them for you, and having a site with us does not make you compliant with anything. That part is between you and your broker.
Rules change, and the details matter more than summaries of them. Everything above is a plain-English reading of publicly available California statutes and regulations, with citations and dates so you can go check the primary source yourself — the California Department of Real Estate publishes the current Real Estate Law and the Commissioner's Regulations for free. This is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a guarantee that any particular website complies. Verify with your responsible broker and, where it matters, a California attorney.
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