What must appear on a real estate ad in Washington?

Under RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124, WA DOL requires the licensed name of your brokerage. Advertising must carry the firm's licensed name, or its licensed assumed name (DBA).

Does a social media post count as advertising in Washington?

WA DOL 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 Washington?

Washington 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 RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124.

LOKAL / Advertising rules / Washington

WA DOLRCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124Read at the source

Real estate advertising rules in Washington

Advertising must carry the firm's licensed name, or its licensed assumed name (DBA).

What has to be on the post

the licensed name of your brokerage

The part that is easy to get wrong

Washington cares that the name is the LICENSED one. A team brand or an unregistered trading name does not stand in for it.

The numbers, in one place

Washington advertising requirements, in figures
1	requirement WA DOL 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	Washington 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

WA DOL, RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124. Read the rule at the source

Your state regulator is not the only one with a say. These federal sources apply on top of RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124, 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 RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124 before you post. It carries all 51 US jurisdictions.

Open the generator for Washington

Other jurisdictions

Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Delaware Illinois All 51 jurisdictions

Questions

What must appear on a real estate ad in Washington?: Under RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124, WA DOL requires the licensed name of your brokerage. Advertising must carry the firm's licensed name, or its licensed assumed name (DBA).
Does a social media post count as advertising in Washington?: WA DOL 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 Washington?: Washington 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 RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124.
Anything easy to get wrong in Washington?: Washington cares that the name is the LICENSED one. A team brand or an unregistered trading name does not stand in for it.

How this page is written and checked

Written by the engineering team at INEYA Studio, the software studio that builds LOKAL. The Washington rule on this page was read at WA DOL'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: RCW 18.85 / WAC 308-124 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.