North Carolina advertising rules, for your website.
The firm's name immediately visible in the ad itself. No one-click rule here.
What North Carolina actually requires
North Carolina requires every advertisement to include the name of the firm or sole proprietorship, immediately visible without a click, scroll, or profile check, and requires the broker-in-charge's consent before a broker advertises at all. The blind-ad rule explicitly lists a bare internet web address among the disclosures that are not enough on their own.
The equal-size requirement for firm and team names was added by a 2018 amendment.
Regulator
North Carolina Real Estate Commission (NCREC)
Citations
- 21 NCAC 58A .0105(a)(1), (b)
- 21 NCAC 58A .1809 (nonresident commercial brokers)
- NCREC bulletins interpreting Rule A.0105
We build websites, we are not lawyers, and this is not legal advice. Rules change. Confirm the current text with the North Carolina Real Estate Commission (NCREC) before you launch.
What that means on the page
The rule as a set of decisions your designer and developer have to make before launch, not after.
Firm name in every advertisement
Immediately visible in the ad itself, and at least the same size as the broker's name.
Broker-in-charge consent
A broker may not advertise brokerage services without the BIC's consent. A supervisory gate that belongs in your launch checklist, not just your footer.
No blind ads
An ad showing only a phone number, box, street address, web address, or email without identifying the broker or firm violates the rule outright.
Team names travel with the firm name
A team name is always immediately accompanied by the full name of the affiliated firm.
What catches people out here
These are the parts that do not transfer from another state's template.
The state that rejects the one-click rule
Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, and Washington all allow a space-limited ad to put full disclosure one click away. NCREC states plainly that it does not recognize a one-click rule. A social template built for any of those four states is non-compliant here out of the box.
A URL alone is a violation, not a shortcut
The blind-ad rule names internet web addresses specifically. A teaser post or sign carrying only yourbrokerage.com with no firm identification breaks the rule rather than cleverly routing around it.
Out-of-state commercial brokers get a label
Limited nonresident commercial brokers must conspicuously identify themselves as exactly that in advertising. Niche, but it exists nowhere else in our set.
This page covers state advertising rules only. Fair housing, MLS display rules, and consent for lead forms apply everywhere and are covered in our brokerage website requirements guide.
The rules genuinely differ
California requires a license number on your site. Texas law bars its commission from requiring one. Never assume a neighbouring state's template applies.
Do not see your state? We add one only after verifying its rule against the actual statute, because a confident guess about a licensing rule is worse than no page. Ask us and we will read yours with you.
Built to your state's rules,
live before you open.
We read the North Carolina rule as part of the build, so the brokerage name, identification and disclosures land where they belong the first time.