What must appear on a real estate ad in Virginia?

Under 18VAC135-20-190, DPOR requires the licensed name of your brokerage; a way to reach you (a phone number or a website). All advertising must carry a clear, legible and conspicuous disclosure containing the firm's licensed name and the office contact information.

Does a social media post count as advertising in Virginia?

DPOR 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 Virginia?

Virginia 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 18VAC135-20-190.

LOKAL / Advertising rules / Virginia

DPOR18VAC135-20-190Read at the source

Real estate advertising rules in Virginia

All advertising must carry a clear, legible and conspicuous disclosure containing the firm's licensed name and the office contact information.

What has to be on the post

the licensed name of your brokerage
a way to reach you (a phone number or a website)

The part that is easy to get wrong

Virginia sets no size rule, and it does not require the individual licensee's name. What it does require is the firm's name plus a way to reach the office.

The numbers, in one place

Virginia advertising requirements, in figures
2	requirements DPOR 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	Virginia 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

DPOR, 18VAC135-20-190. Read the rule at the source

Your state regulator is not the only one with a say. These federal sources apply on top of 18VAC135-20-190, 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 18VAC135-20-190 before you post. It carries all 51 US jurisdictions.

Open the generator for Virginia

Other jurisdictions

Vermont Washington West Virginia Delaware Illinois All 51 jurisdictions

Questions

What must appear on a real estate ad in Virginia?: Under 18VAC135-20-190, DPOR requires the licensed name of your brokerage; a way to reach you (a phone number or a website). All advertising must carry a clear, legible and conspicuous disclosure containing the firm's licensed name and the office contact information.
Does a social media post count as advertising in Virginia?: DPOR 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 Virginia?: Virginia 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 18VAC135-20-190.
Anything easy to get wrong in Virginia?: Virginia sets no size rule, and it does not require the individual licensee's name. What it does require is the firm's name plus a way to reach the office.

How this page is written and checked

Written by the engineering team at INEYA Studio, the software studio that builds LOKAL. The Virginia rule on this page was read at DPOR'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: 18VAC135-20-190 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.