California real estate email signature requirements
California is the one state here that requires a license number on covered materials, and its regulation lists email by name. But it targets solicitation materials meant to be a consumer's first point of contact, so whether a routine signature is covered is not settled by the text.
Regulator: California Department of Real Estate (DRE). Summarized from the rule text and official guidance linked below, as of September 28, 2026. Not legal advice.
Does the rule cover email?
- 10 CCR 2773(a)(5) lists advertisements in electronic media, including email, among the solicitation materials that must carry the license number. DRE's own chart lists “mail (regular & email)” as first-point-of-contact solicitation material.
- The rule is aimed at material intended to be the first point of contact with consumers. It does not speak to routine signatures or to emails to existing clients.
- Under 2773(c), the electronic advertisements that count are those a licensee purchases or directly places and controls. Third-party platforms that control the display are excluded unless the licensee adopts the content by distributing or forwarding it to a consumer.
Is a license number required?
- Required on covered materials: 2773(a) says they must disclose the eight-digit real estate license identification number and the responsible broker's name as currently licensed. If more than one licensee is named, each licensee's number must appear.
- The responsible broker's own license number is optional. The number must be in type no smaller than the smallest type used in the material.
Team names
- Business and Professions Code 10159.6 requires the team name plus the name and license number of at least one licensed member, displayed in a conspicuous and prominent manner, and the responsible broker's identity must be as prominent as the team name.
- Team names must not imply a separate brokerage. Definitions are in section 10159.7.
Anything specific to signatures
- No DRE document we found uses the words “email signature.” DRE's August 2020 advertising guidelines list emails among electronic media and repeat the first-point-of-contact list.
- The “broker, agent, Realtor” designation requirement in Business and Professions Code 10140.6(a) is stated for newspaper, periodical or mail; we did not find it applied to email.
A practical checklist
Our reading of the rules above, not language from any rule. Your broker-in-charge has the final say.
- Include your DRE license number and your responsible broker's name in your signature; it covers you if your signature is treated as a solicitation.
- If you show a team name, include a licensed team member's name and number, with the broker as prominent as the team.
- Ask your responsible broker to confirm.
What we could not confirm
- Whether a signature on an email to someone you already work with is a covered solicitation is ambiguous. Including the details is the cautious choice, not a statement that the law requires it.
- An industry site argues signatures sent to people who already visited your site are not a “first point of contact.” We could not verify that and do not present it as law.
Add your license number, brokerage name and Equal Housing line in the free generator, or set them once for your whole brokerage and keep every agent's Gmail signature in step.
Other states
- North Carolina
- Florida
- Texas
- New York
- Georgia
- New Jersey
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- Virginia
- Washington
- Michigan
- Maryland
See also what a real estate signature can carry and how to keep it out of spam.
Sources (read September 28, 2026)
- Business and Professions Code 10140.6
- 10 CCR 2773 (DRE text, amended 2019)
- 10 CCR 2773 (Cornell LII mirror)
- DRE advertising chart RE 559
- DRE Real Estate Advertising Guidelines (RE 27)
Rules change and this page can fall behind. Email Signature Magic is not a law firm and is not affiliated with any regulator. Found something out of date? Tell us.