Real Estate Practice, Advertising, and Required Disclosures
Advertising rules
Ads must be truthful, not misleading, and must identify the licensed brokerage. A salesperson advertises only with the employing broker's approval and under the licensed name on Commission records - nicknames and unlicensed team names can violate the rules. Blind ads lacking brokerage identification are prohibited, as is advertising another's listing without permission. Websites and social media posts are advertising too; each ad should carry the brokerage name, not merely a linked page.
Required disclosures and conduct
Disclose the agency relationship in writing; disclose known material defects; provide fair-housing and lead-based-paint information where applicable; disclose the licensee's own interest in a property and any compensation facts the client needs. Commissions are negotiable, and MLS offers of compensation to buyer brokers are no longer a condition of participation. Antitrust rules bar price fixing, commission pooling, and group boycotts. Alaska's Human Rights Act adds protected classes beyond the federal Fair Housing Act - including marital status, changes in marital status, pregnancy, and parenthood - and prohibits discriminatory advertising.
Traps
- Using a team name without the brokerage name.
- Advertising a listing without the owner's written consent.
- Describing a property in ways that raise fair-housing problems (school quality, crime, 'family friendly').
- Answering questions about protected classes or steering buyers by neighborhood demographics.
Rule of thumb
Read every ad as if the Commission, the seller, and a fair-housing tester are all reading it: is the brokerage named, is the claim provable, and does it exclude anyone?