What must appear on a real estate ad in Ohio?

Under ORC 4735.16, Ohio Division of Real Estate requires your own name, as it appears on your licence; the licensed name of your brokerage. The advertisement must identify the licensee by name and name the affiliated brokerage, and the brokerage must be displayed in equal prominence with the salesperson's name.

Does a social media post count as advertising in Ohio?

Ohio Division of Real Estate 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.

LOKAL / Advertising rules / Ohio

Ohio Division of Real EstateORC 4735.16Read at the source

Real estate advertising rules in Ohio

The advertisement must identify the licensee by name and name the affiliated brokerage, and the brokerage must be displayed in equal prominence with the salesperson's name.

What has to be on the post

your own name, as it appears on your licence
the licensed name of your brokerage

ORC 4735.16 is a SIZE rule, not just a mention: the brokerage name must be drawn at least 100% the size of the largest agent contact text in the ad. A layout that satisfies a lighter state fails here.

The part that is easy to get wrong

Ohio judges prominence on type size, style, colour AND placement. LOKAL can only measure the size, so it reports on that and leaves the rest to your eye.

The numbers, in one place

Ohio advertising requirements, in figures
2	requirements Ohio Division of Real Estate 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
100 %	the minimum size of the broker name against yours here
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, using the 100 % Ohio requires.

Where this comes from

Ohio Division of Real Estate, ORC 4735.16. Read the rule at the source

Your state regulator is not the only one with a say. These federal sources apply on top of ORC 4735.16, 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 ORC 4735.16 before you post. It carries all 51 US jurisdictions.

Open the generator for Ohio

Other jurisdictions

North Dakota Oklahoma Oregon Texas All 51 jurisdictions

Questions

What must appear on a real estate ad in Ohio?: Under ORC 4735.16, Ohio Division of Real Estate requires your own name, as it appears on your licence; the licensed name of your brokerage. The advertisement must identify the licensee by name and name the affiliated brokerage, and the brokerage must be displayed in equal prominence with the salesperson's name.
Does a social media post count as advertising in Ohio?: Ohio Division of Real Estate 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 Ohio?: ORC 4735.16 is a SIZE rule, not just a mention: the brokerage name must be drawn at least 100% the size of the largest agent contact text in the ad. A layout that satisfies a lighter state fails here.
Anything easy to get wrong in Ohio?: Ohio judges prominence on type size, style, colour AND placement. LOKAL can only measure the size, so it reports on that and leaves the rest to your eye.

How this page is written and checked

Written by the engineering team at INEYA Studio, the software studio that builds LOKAL. The Ohio rule on this page was read at Ohio Division of Real Estate'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: ORC 4735.16 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.