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).

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.

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

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.