Some would say we’re pretty much free to do as we like to promote our business, as long as we follow the rules and laws, and even the ever-evolving expectations of those around us. 

But when it comes to advertising, the creativity of members is often limitless, which means it’s sometimes necessary for us to write the occasional reminder about staying between the painted lines. 

The Board’s advertising standards are general, and we try not to get in your way by micro-managing. How you meet these standards is up to you. But occasionally, a member will get a little overenthused with their copy or forget to substantiate a claim. These ads get noticed, sometimes causing other members to contact the Board. We are required to follow up (most often informally), asking that claims be verified and/or supported, and tweaks be made to the ad copy to comply with the standards. 

There are a lot of rules and standards related to advertising, which you should be familiar with. Section 8 of the Rules of Cooperation is devoted to advertising rules. The REALTOR® Code of Ethics also weighs in with advertising standards in Articles 13, 14 and 15.

Other standards relate to intellectual property, such as not advertising someone else’s listing or sale without their permission (exceptions aside). As well, our regulator’s standards and, of course, the Competition Bureau requirements for advertising must be adhered to.

All these boil down to some pretty basic maxims:

• Be truthful. By all means, get them interested in what you’re selling, but don’t mislead them.
• Be accurate. Everyone appreciates being given the straight goods.If you’re going to make a quantifiable claim, make sure it’s true. Support it with copy stating the time frame, geographical area, and data source for which the claim is being made.
• If you make a promise in your advertising, be prepared to follow though. If there’s an exception to the promise, state it in your ad copy. Using “Check my website for details,” is insufficient.
• Only advertise other members’ listings and sales within the rules. This means if you haven’t listed or sold a property, you don’t advertise it unless you have permission. There are exceptions; for example, reciprocity, VOW websites, public record information, and “I just sold this property” ads by the buyer agent.
• Both the Board and BCFSA require your brokerage name to be in your ads. All of them. Always. A franchise name alone is not enough.
• Respect our valuable trademarks by displaying them correctly: namely, REALTOR®, REALTORS®, Multiple Listing Service®, and MLS®.  
• If you’ve made the Medallion or President’s Clubs, you must state the years of qualification in your copy. (As an aside, qualifying for these clubs doesn’t automatically ensure you’re “top 1 per cent” or “top 10 per cent.” The clubs are designed to capture the members who’ve sold and listed the most units, but the math isn’t as straightforward as you may think. If you just barely made it into a club, it’s possible you might not actually be a top 1 or 10 per center. Consider this when you’re writing your copy.)
• Use a current photograph of yourself and respect your brokerage’s logos and colours.

Lastly, there’s a PDP course on this subject: Advertising Do’s and Don’ts.

It’s summertime. If you’re going to take some well-deserved time off, don’t forget to mind the store:

• Let your clients know who they should talk to if you’re going to be off-line,
• Let your managing broker and brokerage staff know when you’re leaving, when you’re coming back and who to talk to if there’s a problem, 
• If you have firm but not-yet-completed deals in the pipeline, let the other member know you’ll be away and who to talk to if something comes up, and 
• Consider activating an email and voice mail responder advising you’re unavailable, when you will be back, and who to talk to in the meantime.

If you plan to be reachable, you won’t need to follow these suggestions. But if you’re reachable, what kind of vacation will you have? Everyone needs a rest. This business can be stressful.

I wish you the very best of the summer.