I just asked VAR Legal Counsel to help me understand what is considered advertising, and what isn’t.

Apparently a broker can have an IDX data feed website that showcases 60,000 homes from multiple agents, and that is ok.

But that same agent can’t write a specific blog about a listing that is not their listing (without permission) because they call it advertising.

If I say condo XYZ is overpriced and I warn my readers, how is that advertising that product?

Wikipedia says advertising is “is a one-way communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to obtain them.”

What if you are telling somebody NOT to obtain something? Is it no longer an AD?

Websters http://m-w.com/dictionary/advertising calls it “the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements.”

Well blogs aren’t paid, so are they ads?

And lastly, what if you combine your blog and an IDX MLS website?

Can you not mention a specific property by name but you can say, “There is a great deal on a condo CLICK HERE” and that click goes to the IDX MLS feed, where advertising is allowed?

Thanks for the ponder.

If I end with my name… is that an advertisement?

- Frank (see name for full disclosure of who I am, as required by DPOR for all advertisements)