By Monica Staaf, RIAR General Counsel, and Donna McGinn, Director, MLS & Member Services

1. Include the broker’s name in all advertising, including signs, social media, websites, print, radio, television, etc.
   
   
2. Make the broker’s name more prominent than the salesperson’s or team’s name in all real estate advertising, social media, signs, etc.
   
   
   
3. Make sure that your advertising is clear and accurate. (State law prohibits false or misleading advertising, such as giving a consumer the impression that you are the listing broker when another company has the listing.)
   
   
4. When advertising that you or your brokerage is #1, explain the basis for it. (Example:  Green Acres Realty closed more single-family homes of $500,000 or more in Barrington from January 1, 2018 – March 31, 2018.)
   
   
5. Use an MLS disclaimer when using data from the MLS. (“Based on information from the RI Association of Realtors® (alternatively, from State-Wide MLS) for the period (date) through (date).”)
   
   
6. Comply with IDX rules when advertising another company’s listing. (This includes sharing on Facebook and other social media sites.)
   
   
7. Report your listings to MLS before advertising or within 24 hours after posting a sign. (This includes non-MLS listings.)
   
   
8. Comply with “coming soon” requirements.  (Have the seller sign a non-MLS form, then report the listing to MLS as a non-MLS listing.  Make sure to modify your listing agreement if the property won’t be advertised in MLS for a specific period of time.)
   
   
9. Obtain written permission before posting photos that you didn’t take yourself.
   
   
10. Make sure that the co-branding/joint marketing comply with anti-kickback laws.  (The costs of launching a joint promotion with a settlement service provider, such as a lender, mortgage broker, home inspector, lawyer, builder, or other settlement service provider must be share proportionately and based on a fair market value.)
    
    

Advertising/Social Media Laws, Rules, and Regulations

#1, #2, and #3. 
Advertising:  Commercial Licensing Regulation 11,  SECTION 25. ADVERTISING  

(A) Unless otherwise stated herein, categories of advertising include but are not limited to any publication, radio or television broadcasts, business stationary, business cards, business and legal forms, electronic mail, web sites, twitter messaging, and other internet media, or documents.

(B) A licensee shall not advertise in any way that is false or misleading.

(C) All advertising shall include the name of the brokerage or principal broker under which the licensee is licensed to do business.

(D) When the name of a licensee is contained in any advertising, except on business cards, it shall be in print smaller and less conspicuous than that of the brokerage.

http://www.dbr.state.ri.us/

R.I.G.L. § 5-20.5-14   http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE5/5-20.5/INDEX.HTM

#4 and #5
Use of MLS Data: State-Wide MLS Rules and Regulations

http://www.rirealtors.org/mls/rules-policies/mls-rules-regulations/

Section 12.3 Limitations on Use of MLS Information:

“Any print or non-print forms of advertising or other forms of public representations based in whole or in part on information supplied by the association or its MLS must clearly demonstrate the period of time over which such claims are based and must include the following, or substantially similar, notice:

Based on information from the RI Association of Realtors® (alternatively, from State-Wide MLS) for the period (date) through (date). . . ”

#6  Advertising other companies’ listings/Internet Data Exchange

State-Wide MLS Rules and Regulations Section 13.1 Authorization Participants’ consent for display of their listings by other participants pursuant to these rules and regulations is presumed unless a participant affirmatively notifies the MLS that the participant refuses to permit display (either on a blanket or on a listing-by-listing basis). If a participant refuses on a blanket basis to permit the display of that participant’s listings, that participant may not download, frame or display the aggregated MLS data of other participants. Even where participants have given blanket authority for other participants to display their listings on IDX sites, such consent may be withdrawn on a listing-by-listing basis where the seller has prohibited all Internet display.

Section 13.3.2 All listings displayed pursuant to IDX shall identify the listing firm in a reasonably prominent location and in a readily visible color and typeface not smaller than the median used in the display of listing data.  Displays of minimal information (e.g., “thumbnails, text messages, “tweets,” etc., of two hundred [200] characters or less) are exempt from this requirement but only when linked directly to a display that includes all required disclosures. . . . .

WARNING:   Even though MLS Rules don’t require you to include the name of the actual listing broker to appear in a display of 200 characters or less, Rhode Island law doesn’t include such an exemption.  If you bury the name of the listing company in a way that misleads consumers into incorrectly believing that you are the listing broker, the RI Department of Business Regulation could fine you for violating advertisers.

#7 Reporting deadlines – State-Wide MLS Rules and Regulations:

Section 4.4 Submissions  A Report of any listing taken in accordance with the above Section shall be made to the MLS by the Participant, within twenty-four hours, excluding state and federal holidays, following its effective date or the placement of a sign on the property; However, if Participant advertises a property, excluding the placement of a sign, the property must be reported either as an MLS listing or a non-MLS listing at the time the advertisement appears.

#8 “Coming soon” – State-Wide MLS Rules and Regulations:

Section 4.2 Exempted/Non-MLS Listings- If the seller refuses to permit the listing to be disseminated by the MLS, but still enters into a contract with the listing licensee for the sale of their property, including broker–owned properties, the listing licensee shall file with the MLS a Non-MLS Exempt Form, signed by the sellers no later than twenty-four hours, excluding state and federal holidays, of the effective date of the listing agreement.

#9 Photos:  State-Wide MLS Policy:

Members are prohibited from submitting photos previously entered into the Service by another agent or agency without written permission from the photo’s original owner/licensee.

When photos are ordered through a photographer, they continue to hold the copyright. This means that you cannot transfer or sell the photos to another licensee without the permission of the photographer.

Copyright laws prohibit the unauthorized use of original content – ranging from photographs and drawings to software and marketing materials.

#10  Co-Branding:   Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)  12 U.S. Code § 2607 – Prohibition against kickbacks and unearned fees

(a) Business referrals   No person shall give and no person shall accept any fee, kickback, or thing of value pursuant to any agreement or understanding, oral or otherwise, that business incident to or a part of a real estate settlement service involving a federally related mortgage loan shall be referred to any person. . . . .

The National Association of REALTORS® has created a helpful list of these and other co-marketing do’s and don’ts.  http://narfocus.com/billdatabase/clientfiles/172/4/2855.pdf