Does a social media post count as advertising in Hawaii?

Hawaii REC writes its rule for advertising in any medium, and a market-update post that invites contact is advertising. The safest place for the disclosures is inside the image itself, because a caption can be truncated and a bio can be missed.

Is there a size requirement in Hawaii?

Hawaii sets no size or prominence ratio between the brokerage name and your own. The mention has to be there and be readable; how big it is relative to your name is not fixed by Haw. Code R. 16-99-11.

LOKAL / Advertising rules / Hawaii

Hawaii RECHaw. Code R. 16-99-11Read at the source

Real estate advertising rules in Hawaii

Advertising must carry the brokerage's legal or registered trade name, identify the licensee with their employing brokerage, AND specify the licensee's status: broker (B), salesperson (S), Realtor (R) or Realtor-Associate (RA).

What has to be on the post

your own name, as it appears on your licence
the licensed name of your brokerage
your status letter (B, S, R or RA)

The part that is easy to get wrong

Hawaii is the only state read so far that requires a STATUS letter next to your name. LOKAL has a field for it and prints it after your name.

The numbers, in one place

Hawaii advertising requirements, in figures
3	requirements Hawaii REC puts on the ad itself
51	US jurisdictions LOKAL carries, read at the source
15	of them set a text SIZE rule, not just a mention
2	require the licence number on the advertisement
no ratio	Hawaii fixes no size ratio between the two
2026	the year this rule was last read at the source
29 %	of US jurisdictions turn this into a measurable size rule
14,853	US markets LOKAL can pre-fill, down to the ZIP code
$29	a month for the tool that checks this before you post

A worked example, and why one template cannot do it

Two states contradict each other outright, and it is the clearest case study of why this matters. Texas asks for the broker name at 50 % of the largest agent contact text; Illinois asks for 100 %. A layout built for Texas is therefore non-compliant in Illinois, and the difference is not a missing word but a font size. That result is only visible if something measures the pixels after drawing them, which is what LOKAL does before you post.

Where this comes from

Hawaii REC, Haw. Code R. 16-99-11. Read the rule at the source

Your state regulator is not the only one with a say. These federal sources apply on top of Haw. Code R. 16-99-11, and no state commission will remind you of them:

LOKAL reproduces published regulator guidance and checks what it draws against it. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace your broker's review.

LOKAL checks this on the image, not on a form.

Pick your market, set your signature once, and LOKAL measures what it actually drew against Haw. Code R. 16-99-11 before you post. It carries all 51 US jurisdictions.

Open the generator for Hawaii

Other jurisdictions

Georgia Idaho Illinois Delaware All 51 jurisdictions

Questions

What must appear on a real estate ad in Hawaii?: Under Haw. Code R. 16-99-11, Hawaii REC requires your own name, as it appears on your licence; the licensed name of your brokerage; your status letter (B, S, R or RA). Advertising must carry the brokerage's legal or registered trade name, identify the licensee with their employing brokerage, AND specify the licensee's status: broker (B), salesperson (S), Realtor (R) or Realtor-Associate (RA).
Does a social media post count as advertising in Hawaii?: Hawaii REC writes its rule for advertising in any medium, and a market-update post that invites contact is advertising. The safest place for the disclosures is inside the image itself, because a caption can be truncated and a bio can be missed.
Is there a size requirement in Hawaii?: Hawaii sets no size or prominence ratio between the brokerage name and your own. The mention has to be there and be readable; how big it is relative to your name is not fixed by Haw. Code R. 16-99-11.
Anything easy to get wrong in Hawaii?: Hawaii is the only state read so far that requires a STATUS letter next to your name. LOKAL has a field for it and prints it after your name.

How this page is written and checked

Written by the engineering team at INEYA Studio, the software studio that builds LOKAL. The Hawaii rule on this page was read at Hawaii REC's own published text in 2026, not summarised from a third party.

It is checked automatically on every build against the compliance table the product itself applies: Haw. Code R. 16-99-11 appears on this page only because LOKAL enforces exactly that rule when it draws your image. A page that claimed a requirement the product does not check would fail the build.

Reviewed by the engineering team at INEYA Studio on 2026-09-17, and re-checked automatically on every deployment. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.