I saw this video from our friends at the Arizona Association of REALTORS recently where real estate commissioner Judy Lowe discusses advertising rules for real estate web sites.
In the video, Judy talks about challenges she and Michelle Lind ( head honcho at the AAR ) had when trying to determine what “clear and prominent” means as they put together the advertising guidelines and rules for Arizona brokers and their real estate web sites.
Obviously, the huge number of real estate-related web sites means that it is difficult for the Department of Real Estate to keep track of each and every compliant and non-compliant web site out there. Heck, you have brokerage sites that fail miserably when it comes to identifying the name of the brokerage. Just think of the huge number of individual real estate agents out there who don’t know what the giudelines are, and they certainly don’t know how to add a logo to the header of their web site. They spend $19.95 per month to have a company “build them a website” that will help create their empire. The “problem” is that the so-called web developers who mass produce many agent web sites have never bothered to see if there are any compliance issues for their agents who are just a credit card number to their company.
It is interesting to see the Commissioner talk about things that brokerages “should” consider when advertising their services on the internet. The talk focuses on how the brokerage or brokerage logo should be displayed on the agent or broker’s web site. Basically, the Department looks to “protect the public” from unscrupilous people who don’t display their brokerage prominently on their web site.
Arizona Brokers – Pay Attention!
In the video above, Commissioner Lowe mentions things like:
“More distinct”
“Stands out”
“Over and above” or “At least as strong as”
“Front and center at the top”
Judy likes to say that she can tell you what isn’t acceptable…
“It’s not the logo of the company buried at the bottom right hand corner, and you need a magnifying glass to see it.” Judy Lowe, Arizona Department of Real Estate Commissioner.
She reiterates that the brokerage logo should be clear and prominent on every page of the web site. She also mentions that it must have the name of the company as the company is licensed with the Department of Real Estate. Unfortunately, some agents don’t even attempt to comply, while others just don’t know what the rules are. Each brokerage should have a policy about these kinds of things. Yes, I have had our logo approved by our broker. We’re pretty certain the Commissioner would approve, as well.
It was difficult for me to keep from posting some of the many sites I see as examples of what NOT to do. Thankfully, my momma taught me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, I should just keep my big mouth shut…
- It was great to see my friends Paula Serven and Paula Monthofer in the video with Commissioner Lowe. Nice job, ladies!
Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader or your email client, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.
(c) Copyright Jay Thompson. All Rights Reserved.
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