Real estate advertising rules for your website in North Carolina

North Carolina treats your website as advertising. Under Commission rule 21 NCAC 58A .0105(a)(1), you can't advertise brokerage services or a property for someone else without your broker-in-charge's consent and without including the name of the firm or sole proprietorship you're affiliated with. The same rule bars "blind" ads that look like a private-party offer or that show nothing but contact details, and it bars advertising any property without the owner's written consent.

Below is each requirement with the rule it comes from. Where the requirement comes from Commission guidance rather than rule text, we say so.

1. Your firm's name has to be in the advertisement

21 NCAC 58A .0105(a)(1) — the operative language:

"A broker shall not advertise any brokerage service or the sale, purchase, exchange, rent, or lease of real estate for another or others without the consent of his or her broker-in-charge and without including in the advertisement the name of the firm or sole proprietorship with which the broker is affiliated."

Effective February 1, 1976; most recently amended effective July 1, 2021.

Read the rule text: 21 NCAC 58A .0105 (NC Office of Administrative Hearings) — note this state server is plain HTTP, not HTTPS. The identical text also appears in the Commission's own rulebook, North Carolina Real Estate License Law and Commission Rules, January 2026 edition, at Rule A.0105.

Two things worth being precise about, because you'll see them stated wrong:

• The rule requires the firm name in the advertisement. It does not use the word "conspicuous." We checked the full official text of Subchapter 58A; "conspicuous" appears in that subchapter only in unrelated rules, not in .0105.
• The rule is medium-neutral. It doesn't say anything specific about websites versus print. The website application follows from the plain words "in the advertisement," not from a separate web rule.

2. Your broker-in-charge has to consent before you advertise

Same sentence, same rule: advertising happens "without the consent of his or her broker-in-charge" is what's prohibited. So a personal site needs BIC sign-off before it goes live.

The mirror-image duty sits on the BIC. 21 NCAC 58A .0110(g)(3) makes a designated broker-in-charge responsible to "be responsible for the conduct of advertising by or in the name of the firm at such office." Amended effective July 1, 2021. Read .0110.

The Commission's December 2025 eBulletin states the same thing in plain terms — "Before advertising any brokerage service or any real estate for another person, you must obtain your Broker-in-Charge's consent" — and lists "Coming soon" posts and social content promoting your role as a broker among the things this covers. (Tech Corner: Are Your Ads Compliant?)

3. No blind ads

21 NCAC 58A .0105(b), amended effective July 1, 2021:

"A broker shall not advertise the sale, purchase, exchange, rent, or lease of real estate for others in a manner indicating the offer to sell, purchase, exchange, rent, or lease is being made by the broker's principal only. Every such advertisement shall indicate that it is the advertisement of a broker or firm and shall not be confined to publication of only contact information, such as a post office box number, telephone number, street address, internet web address, or e-mail address."

Two practical readings of that: a page can't be dressed up to look like a for-sale-by-owner listing, and a page can't be stripped down to just a phone number and an email address. It has to read as a broker's or firm's advertisement.

4. You need the owner's written consent before you advertise a property

21 NCAC 58A .0105(a)(2), amended effective July 1, 2021:

"A broker shall not display a 'for sale' or 'for rent' sign on any real estate or otherwise advertise any real estate without the written consent of the owner or the owner's authorized agent."

"Or otherwise advertise" is doing the work here — this is not just about yard signs. The Commission's December 2025 eBulletin spells out the online application, listing the prohibited acts as placing a sign, posting a listing, or promoting a property online without the owner's written consent, and adding that "A verbal agreement is not enough."

That reaches property photos, listing pages, sold galleries and "coming soon" blocks on your own site.

5. Team names must carry the brokerage name

There is no team rule in the North Carolina Administrative Code. The word "team" does not appear anywhere in Subchapter 58A or in the Commission's January 2026 rulebook. What exists is the Commission's published guidance applying .0105 to teams, in the December 2023 eBulletin on setting up a team inside a firm:

"The team's advertising (e.g. signs, business cards, websites, etc.) must always include the name of the brokerage with which the agents are affiliated (XYZ Realty). Example: 'The Bill Starr Team of XYZ Realty'"

That bulletin also says a team name used purely for branding does not by itself require an assumed-name (DBA) filing, because the name of the licensed and registered entity hasn't changed. Note the scope: that answer is given on facts where no separate business entity was formed for the team. If you've set up a team LLC, that's a different situation and the answer in the bulletin doesn't cover it.

6. Where the firm name goes on a website — rule vs. guidance

Keep these separate, because they carry different weight:

• Rule. .0105(a)(1) requires the firm name in the advertisement. On a website, the site is the advertisement.
• Guidance. The Commission's December 2025 eBulletin states: "Your advertisement must include the name of the firm or sole proprietorship you're affiliated with," and warns against "minimalist ads that omit firm identification for aesthetic reasons." It also says that on social media, "the firm name must be included in the actual ad content, not just in your bio or profile." That bio-versus-content point is stated about social media; the bulletin does not phrase it as a website rule. The website requirement rests on the rule itself.

7. Advertising under a name that isn't the name on your license

21 NCAC 58A .0103(c) (Broker Name and Address), most recently amended effective July 1, 2017:

"In the event that any broker shall advertise or operate in any manner using a name different from the name under which the broker is licensed, the broker shall first file an assumed name certificate in compliance with G.S. 66-71.4 and shall notify the Commission in writing of the use of such a firm name or assumed name. An individual broker shall not advertise or operate in any manner that would mislead a consumer as to the broker's actual identity or as to the identity of the firm with which he or she is affiliated."

Read .0103.

Read the rule together with the Commission's March 2022 eBulletin on names and assumed names, because the rule alone can read as though filing a DBA lets you advertise under anything. The bulletin narrows it: "A broker may not use a name in their real estate business that is different from the name on their real estate license certificate." The Commission recognizes assumed business names for licensed firms and for sole proprietorships — the bulletin is explicit that the DBA procedure "is only for business names – not for individuals who wish to have a 'stage name.'" It also gives a useful example on the other side: an individual broker/sole proprietor named Alex Robinson advertising as "Robinson Realty" is not using an assumed name, because the name includes the broker's surname.

Domain names are an open question. Neither .0105 nor .0103 mentions domains or URLs. .0105(b) mentions an "internet web address" only in the list of contact details an ad can't be limited to. Whether a particular vanity domain amounts to advertising under a different name is a judgment call we could not find answered in any rule or bulletin. The Commission publishes a Regulatory Affairs address (regulatoryaffairs@ncrec.gov) for questions like this; ask before you buy the domain, not after.

What we could not find: a license-number requirement

We read the full official text of Subchapter 21 NCAC 58A and found no rule requiring your license number to appear in advertising. The license-number requirements we did find are elsewhere and are not about advertising: .0104(a) requires the broker's license number in every written brokerage agreement, and .0104(c) requires the broker's name and license number on the "Working with Real Estate Agents" disclosure.

Be clear about what that is: a negative finding from reading the subchapter, not a quoted rule saying you're exempt. We did not exhaustively search Subchapters 58B, 58C, 58E, 58G or 58H, which cover time shares, education and other topics rather than individual-broker advertising. Putting your license number on your site is harmless either way.

What this means for a one-page agent site

Concretely, on a single-page site:

1. Put your firm's name in the page content. Not only in a footer image, not only in your Instagram bio, not only in a logo file with no text. It needs to be text on the page — header, hero, or a clearly visible byline like "Jane Smith, Broker, XYZ Realty."
2. Show the site is a broker's advertisement. A page with your name, photo, phone and email and nothing identifying you as a broker with a firm is the shape .0105(b) is aimed at.
3. Send it to your BIC before it publishes, and again after any meaningful rewrite. Consent is a condition of advertising under the rule, not a courtesy.
4. If you use a team name, pair it with the brokerage name everywhere it appears, per the Commission's guidance — "The Smith Group of XYZ Realty," not "The Smith Group."
5. Don't put a property on the page without the owner's written consent — including photos, "just listed," "coming soon," and sold galleries. Verbal permission isn't what the rule asks for.
6. If the site brands you under anything other than your licensed name, work through .0103(c) and the March 2022 bulletin with your BIC first.

AgentSiteHQ builds one-page agent sites: free to publish with a small badge on the page, or a one-time $297 to own it outright with your own domain — no monthly fee, no IDX. To be direct about the limits of that: the brokerage name, the broker identification, and any team-name wording are content you add and your BIC approves. No website product makes anyone compliant.

Currency and caveats. The rule texts quoted here are the current official versions as of the Commission's January 2026 rulebook. The Commission's April 2026 rule-changes bulletin, covering the Rules Review Commission's March 26, 2026 meeting, lists no changes to .0105 or .0103. Two warnings worth carrying: third-party rule mirrors are frequently stale — some still serve a pre-2021 version of .0105 with different wording — so read the OAH text or the Commission's rulebook, and verify the current text yourself before relying on it.

Rules change, and the details differ from what a summary can capture. Confirm anything here against the North Carolina Real Estate Commission and your broker-in-charge before you rely on it. This page is plain-language information about published rules and Commission guidance. It is not legal advice, and it is not a compliance guarantee.