DRE License Number Requirements

Recently the California department of Real Estate issued a new regulation regarding your license number to be posted on your marketing materials. We have received numerous calls and questions so here is the best clarification we have for the new law. For more detailed information on the new regulation please got to http://www.car.org/legal/2009-new-laws/

The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) has recently adopted a new regulation clarifying the law that requires DRE license numbers on business cards and all other solicitation materials intended to be the first point of contact with consumers.  The licensing law came into effect on July 1, 2009.

What this means to you as a REALTOR®
You must list your license number on all marketing correspondence.

• Business cards;
• Stationery;
• Websites owned, controlled, and/or maintained by the soliciting real estate license; and
• Promotional and advertising flyers, brochures, email and regular mail, leaflets, and any other marketing or promotional materials designed to solicit the creation of a professional relationship between the licensee and a consumer, or intended to induce a consumer to contact the licensee about any licensed services.

DRE’s new regulation also states that the following items are not solicitation materials under the license number requirement:

• Advertisements in electronic media, including radio, cinema, and television ads, and the opening section of streaming video and audio;
• Print advertising in any newspaper or periodical; and
• “For Sale” signs placed on or around a property intended to alert the public the property is available for purchase or lease.

If you have a real estate website you need to have your DRE License number displayed on it and it must not be any smaller than the smallest type on your page. You may also want to consider adding it to your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. accounts as well since you never know how someone will first find you on the web.

Some clients have questioned if they should have their DRE number in their email signature that is sent from your IDX solution. I don’t believe this is necessary since it is not technically a first point of contact. The person is receiving your emails because they have already been to your site. You may want to verify this by visiting the CAR website.

Sources: California Business & Professions Code section 10140.6 (filed September 25, 2008); Section 2773 of Title 10 of the California Code of Regulation (filing with the Secretary of State still pending).

Using Video on Your Website

Inman News published an article on their site today with a list of great ideas on how to incorporate video on your site. Some of these ideas could be helpful in saving you time as well as allowing you to stand out from your competition. Video profiles of a particular neighborhood could be especially helpful to buyers from out of the area. The more excited you can get a buyer about an area or a property, the more likely they will be to make an offer. For more information check out Inman’s article Video killed the business card.

You may want to spend the extra money and have a professionally produced video that you can use to promote yourself. This is just one more way visitors to your site can ‘connect’ with you before actually meeting with you, helping you stand out from others. See the video below for an example.

There may be some videos on YouTube that you can embed on your site to help showcase an area. There are a few sites I know of that link to this video about Tahoe.

It may take a little time to learn how to do a ‘great job’ at posting your own videos, but this is a trend that is only going to get more popular and can more than likely benefit your overall business. There are several companies that can help you produce your video or even shoot and host it for your. One such popular full service company is Turn Here. If anyone has had a positive experience with a web video company and would like to share them with others, let us know and we will add them here.

Yahoo! Research Report: Learn About the Real Estate Consumer

Inman News recently covered a story about knowing your real estate consumer. Yahoo! Real Estate released a report breaking down different segments of typical real estate consumers. For full details visit the original article published on the Inman web site “Know your real estate consumer“.  Referenced in that article is the Yahoo! report “Embracing the Online Real Estate Market.”

Zillow Allows Agents to Co-brand

Zillow has announced that you can now co-brand their pages with your contact information and photo. Once set up, anytime you link to Zillow’s website your profile can be displayed at the top of every page. This is a great way to keep your name in front of potential buyers and sellers. Simply sign up for your free account on Zillow’s website, then enter your screen name into your IDXCentral.com Account Manager on the Account Setup > Contact Information page. Example: Zillow Co-brand page

For more information be sure to check out Zillow’s Blog post Co-brand your clients’ Zillow experience.

What is a RSS Feed?

RSS is a format in which content on a website can be delivered to subscribers. Visitors to your website can simply subscribe to your feed using a feed reader and get instant updates on anything new you publish. Popular feed readers include Google Reader, My Yahoo, and Bloglines. You can also allow visitors to sign up to receive your feed via email if they wish. The major benefit to a feed reader is that visitors don’t have to visit multiple sites to see if anything new has been published. By simply going to their favorite reader page, they can see all updates from all sites instantly. If they see something that want to read more about, they simply click the link back to your site for the full story.

As people become more familiar with this technology it will only become more popular. No longer do you need to check your favorite sites to see if anything is new…now the information will come to you. This is a great way to stay in front of your clients and keep your name fresh in their mind.

To learn more about RSS Feeds and how they work…check out this clever video by CommonCraft.