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Maryland real estate email signature requirements

Maryland's Code of Ethics speaks to email addresses in advertising: an associate broker or salesperson may not use an individual phone number or email address in an advertisement unless the broker's or branch office manager's phone number also appears (COMAR 09.11.02.01G(3)). State law also requires the licensee's name and the full name of the affiliated business, not a logo, in an advertisement (Business Occupations and Professions § 17-527.2). We found no requirement to show a license number.

Regulator: Maryland Real Estate Commission. Summarized from the rule text and official guidance linked below, as of October 15, 2026. Not legal advice.

Does the rule cover email?

  • COMAR 09.11.02.01G(1) defines “advertisement” as any representation, promotion, or solicitation directed to consumers, by any means of communication, for any purpose concerning the provision of real estate brokerage services.
  • COMAR 09.11.02.01G(3), effective October 1, 2004, says an associate broker or salesperson may not use an individual telephone number or email address in an advertisement unless the identified telephone number of the broker or branch office manager also appears in the advertisement.
  • COMAR 09.11.02.01G(4) says any electronic media advertisement shall contain the disclosures in G(2) and (3) on the first 25 percent of the main page, or, if the medium has a limit of 280 characters or fewer, on the first 25 percent of a page reached after a single click on a hyperlink on the main page. The regulation does not define “electronic media advertisement” or say how this applies to an email body.
  • BOP § 17-527.2(a)(3) defines “advertisement” as, unless the context requires otherwise, any oral, written, or printed media advertisement, and says it includes any correspondence, mailing, newsletter, brochure, business card, promotional item, and other listed items. The list does not name email. Whether an email is “correspondence” is a reading, not something the statute states.

Is a license number required?

  • We found no provision in BOP § 17-527.2, BOP § 17-547, COMAR 09.11.01.16 or COMAR 09.11.02.01 that requires a license number in advertising. The required items are the licensee's name, the full name of the business, and (for team advertising and for individual phone or email use) the broker's or branch office manager's phone number.
  • A November 23, 2005 Advice of Counsel memorandum posted by the Commission concluded that the statute has no general mandate to state the license category (broker, associate broker, salesperson) in advertising, other than a licensee offering his or her own property who must disclose being licensed. That memo is about license category, not license number, and predates later amendments.

Team names

  • BOP § 17-543 defines a “team” as two or more licensed associate brokers or salespersons who work together on a regular basis to provide brokerage services, represent themselves to the public as one entity, and designate themselves by a collective name such as team or group, or by using the words “and associates”.
  • BOP § 17-547(a): the team name may not contain “real estate”, “real estate brokerage”, or any other term that would lead the public to believe the team is offering brokerage services independent of the broker.
  • BOP § 17-547(b): all advertising by the team must contain the name of the brokerage displayed in a meaningful and conspicuous way, the name of at least one licensee member of the team, and the telephone number of the broker or branch office manager.
  • BOP § 17-547(c) requires the team name in the advertisement to be directly connected to the name of the brokerage. COMAR 09.11.02.01G(5) says the Commission treats it as directly connected if the only word between them is “of”, “from”, “with”, or “at” and no other word, symbol, or image sits between the team name and the brokerage name.
  • The Commission's team guidance (Do's and Don'ts for Teams and Groups) repeats these advertising requirements, adds “Realty” to the examples of terms a team name may not contain, and says a licensed broker may not be a team member.

Anything specific to signatures

  • Neither the statutes, the regulations nor the Commission guidance we read use the term “signature”. COMAR 09.11.02.01G(3), on individual phone numbers and email addresses in advertisements, is the closest provision.
  • BOP § 17-527.2(b) says a licensee may not advertise unless the licensee's name or designated name, as it appears on the license certificate and pocket card, is meaningfully and conspicuously included, and the full name of the affiliated business is meaningfully and conspicuously included and is the full name of the business and not a logo.
  • BOP § 17-527.3 allows a designated name only if approved by the Commission and shown on the license certificate and pocket card.
  • COMAR 09.11.02.01G(2) says a broker may not permit associates or salespersons to use individual names unless the connection with the broker is obvious in the advertisement. BOP § 17-322(b)(19) and (20) list misleading advertising, violating § 17-527.2, and advertising in an associate's or salesperson's name without the broker's name as grounds for discipline.
  • COMAR 09.11.01.16 requires a licensee using a trade name to clearly and unmistakably include the licensee's name or trade name, as registered with the Commission, in advertising and on business cards.

A practical checklist

Our reading of the rules above, not language from any rule. Your broker-in-charge has the final say.

  • Show your name as it appears on your license (or your Commission-approved designated name).
  • Show the brokerage's full name as text, not only a logo.
  • If you list your own direct phone number or email address, also show the broker's or branch office manager's phone number.
  • If you use a team name, join it directly to the brokerage name with at most “of”, “from”, “with”, or “at”, and nothing else between them.
  • On a team signature, include at least one licensed team member's name and the broker's or branch office manager's phone number.
  • Keep “Real Estate”, “Realty” and similar terms out of a team name.
  • Have your broker confirm the final wording.

What we could not confirm

  • COMAR text read on the Library of Maryland Regulations (regs.maryland.gov) on October 15, 2026. Its administrative history shows 09.11.02.01G amended effective April 26, 2004 and March 7, 2022 (49:5 Md. R. 365), 09.11.02.01I adopted April 11, 2005, and 09.11.01.16 last amended in 1985. Statutes were read on mgaleg.maryland.gov the same day; it did not display amendment dates.
  • The Commission's Do's and Don'ts for Teams and Groups PDF carries no printed date (file creation date March 2022). It restates § 17-547 and § 17-527.2; items that go beyond the statute, such as naming “Realty” and barring brokers from teams, are Commission guidance, not statute text.
  • The 2005 Advice of Counsel memo refers to older regulation numbering (COMAR 09.11.01.19 for trade names, now 09.11.01.16) and is dated; it is posted by the Commission but is labeled advice of counsel, not an opinion of the Attorney General.
  • Whether an email signature is an “advertisement” is not stated directly. COMAR .01G(1) says “by any means of communication”, .01G(3) names email addresses, and § 17-527.2 lists “correspondence” without naming email.
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Sources (read October 15, 2026)

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