In New York, a listing Reel or Short is advertising under 19 NYCRR 175.25. It must name your brokerage with its address or phone number, use your licensed name and correct license type, describe the property honestly and be approved by your broker. Put the brokerage on screen and the details in the caption. This is not legal advice; check with your broker.
If you hold a New York real estate license, the listing tour you post on Instagram or YouTube is an advertisement in the eyes of the state, and so is the clip where you introduce yourself to a neighborhood. I read the regulation, 19 NYCRR 175.25, the Department of State’s guidance and checklist, and NYSAR’s material on it on 8 November 2026. This post sets out what they say, applied to short video. I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Your supervising broker signs off your ads, so check anything here with them before you rely on it.
If a post promotes you or a property, treat it as an ad and put your brokerage on it.
Does a listing Reel count as advertising in New York?
Almost certainly. The regulation defines advertising as “promotion and solicitation related to licensed real estate activity, including but not limited to, advertising via mail telephone, websites, e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, business cards, signs, billboards, and flyers.” Video isn’t named, but the list is open, and the Department of State’s guidance for licensees names “Social Media Websites” and “Smartphone ‘Apps’” among the areas the rule covers. The current text took effect on 2 November 2020; NYSAR publishes the amended text with the changes marked.
Two details catch people out. First, the post doesn’t need a property in it. The guidance says: “Even if an advertisement does not mention a specific property, but is intended to promote the licensee, then Section 175.25 applies.” A day-in-the-life Reel that ends with “thinking of selling? call me” is promotion. Second, there is a carve-out. Advertising “shall not include commentary” by a licensee “that is not related to promoting licensed real estate activity.” A video about your weekend hike is commentary. The same hike video ending on your new listing is not.
What must appear on a listing video in New York?
Here is what the content rules in section 175.25(c) and the teams rules in 175.25(e) ask for, and where I’d put each item in a video post.
| What the rule asks for | Section | Where it goes in a video post |
|---|---|---|
| The brokerage’s name, plus its full address or its phone number | 175.25(c)(1) | Brokerage name on screen; name with address or phone in the caption |
| If you or your team is named, the brokerage’s name as well | 175.25(c)(2) | Never post your own name without the brokerage’s |
| Your name as licensed; a nickname only next to the full licensed name | 175.25(c)(3) | Caption, and any name card on screen |
| Your correct license type; “sales associate”, “licensed sales agent” and plain “broker” are banned | 175.25(c)(4) | Caption, after your name |
| Any other phone number labeled as desk, home or cell | 175.25(c)(7) | Caption |
| An honest description, and the real name of the area the property is in | 175.25(c)(9) | On-screen text, voiceover and caption |
| No promise of future profits | 175.25(c)(10) | Voiceover and caption |
Read (c)(1) closely. Advertisements “shall indicate that the advertiser is a real estate broker or provide the name of the real estate broker or real estate brokerage and either: (i) the full address of the real estate broker or real estate brokerage or, (ii) the telephone number of the real estate broker or brokerage.” The Department’s advertising checklist adds that “the name of the real estate brokerage, as it appears on the license, must be displayed in the advertisement,” so use the licensed name, not a short brand.
The area rule matters more in video than people expect, because a voiceover is easy to get wrong. An ad that places a property “in the vicinity of” an area must name the area it is actually in, and using “a name to describe an area that would be misleading to the public is prohibited.” If the apartment sits a few blocks outside the neighborhood with the better name, say where it really is.
Who is allowed to post the listing?
Under 175.25(b)(1), “only a real estate broker is permitted to place or cause to be published advertisements related to the sale or lease of property.” A salesperson, associate broker or team can post a listing only when the property is listed with or represented by their own broker, “and said real estate broker approved placement of the advertisement.” So your broker’s approval applies to your Instagram, not only to the brokerage website. Three more rules sit around it:
- The owner has to agree. “No property shall be advertised unless the real estate broker has obtained authorization for such advertisement from the owner of the property.”
- Another broker’s exclusive needs that broker’s permission. If you post it, the listing broker’s name goes right after a phrase such as “Listing Courtesy of” or “Listing by” (175.25(d)(6)(i)).
- Paying a third party to advertise another broker’s exclusive also needs, at a minimum, the word “advertisement” immediately after your name (175.25(d)(6)(ii)).
The Department’s advertising page describes that last rule in terms of lead generation programs “such as Zillow, StreetEasy, Trulia, and others.” Nothing I read says how it treats a boosted Instagram post, so ask your broker before you pay to promote anything that isn’t your brokerage’s listing.
Can the details live in the caption or the bio?
Video makes this awkward. I’d assume most people look at the picture and the first line of the caption, and little else. The Department’s guidance has one example that helps. A salesperson advertising a listing through a mobile app with a character limit left out his license type, and that broke the rule. The guidance says he could have “threaded” his messages so they act as one ad, or, as an alternative, the Department “would permit Mr. Smith to provide a clear, conspicuous and unambiguous link within the same advertisement to a separate page where all the required disclosures are made.” The link “must clearly and conspicuously disclose the link’s purpose and cannot simply state ‘click here for more information’.”
That example is about an app with a character limit, not about Instagram, so I wouldn’t stretch it into permission to skip details. A caption has room for the full block. My habit would be the brokerage name on screen for the whole clip, and in the caption your licensed name, your license type, the brokerage name and its phone number or address. A link in the bio is a backup, not the disclosure.
Footage and photos you didn’t shoot
Photographs posted on a broker’s website “shall not be used or reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder,” and the guidance gives the example of a salesperson who used a prior broker’s professional photos of a listing without permission. It calls that a violation. It also says advertising “must be presented in an honest and accurate manner to avoid harm to the public; this includes using appropriate photography and providing fair descriptions of property being offered.”
For video, the simple habits are: film the tour yourself, get written permission for anything you didn’t film, and don’t edit the picture in ways that change what a buyer would see in person.
Team names on video
If you post as a team, the name has its own rule. Team names “shall use the term ‘team’,” and words such as “associate,” “realty” or “group” are prohibited. If the members’ full licensed names aren’t in it, the checklist says the team name must be “followed by: ‘at/of (full name of the brokerage)’.” The guidance’s own compliant example is “The Smith & Doe Team at Department of State Realty Inc.” A team may use its own logo only if “the name or logo of the real estate broker or real estate brokerage is also printed in the advertisement” (175.25(c)(8)). On video, the end card with the team logo carries the brokerage too.
What happens when a post gets it wrong?
The guidance says the Department “will seek to impose sanctions, including, but not limited to license revocation or suspension, fines and restitution” against licensees who break these rules. NYSAR’s January 2025 legal update shows what that looked like in practice: “DOS has been citing brokers and associated licensees for not including the required disclosures on their website/social media pages,” with “Fines between $500-$6,000.” Of 23 consent orders published in the six months before that update, NYSAR counted 16 for illegal advertising and 13 for an improper license type or corporate title. The categories add up to more than 23, so one order can cite several problems.
The same update flags a profile-level item: a link to the Division’s reasonable modification and accommodation notice on “the homepage of such website or social media site.” That one is about your account rather than each post, so add it to the list you check with your broker.
A pre-post check for a listing Reel
- Is the brokerage named on screen? Use the name as it appears on the license, for the whole clip or at least the end card.
- Does the caption carry the full block? Your licensed name, your license type, the brokerage name and its address or phone number. Label a cell number as a cell.
- Did your broker approve it? And is the listing with your brokerage, with the owner’s authorization to advertise?
- Is every claim true on the day you post? Price, beds and baths, the neighborhood name, the view. Update or remove the post when the price changes or the place is gone.
- Is all the footage yours or licensed? Film it yourself, or hold written permission.
- Posting as a team? Check the name has “team” in it and the brokerage after it.
Where Lot70 fits
Leo AI makes Lot70, so we have a commercial interest here; treat this section as the pitch. Lot70 is a phone web app for licensed New York real estate brokers and salespersons, 18 or over. You film a tour of up to five minutes through your phone’s camera, and in about a minute you have a vertical clip with captions and graphics. While it cuts you can add the address, price, beds and baths. The brokerage is a required field, and your brokerage’s name goes on the clip. It posts to Instagram or YouTube Shorts from your own account. The first seven posts on each connected channel are free, then $4 a post.
What Lot70 doesn’t do is write your caption’s disclosure block or approve the post for your broker. The brokerage on screen covers the part people see; the caption and the sign-off are still yours.
If you post listings in New York, the short version is: brokerage on screen, full details in the caption, broker approval before it goes up. See how Lot70 puts your brokerage on every clip, and keep the Department’s checklist open the first few times you post.
Name the brokerage, tell the truth, get the sign-off.
Sources
- New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (Cornell LII), 19 NYCRR 175.25, Advertising
- New York Department of State, Advertising for Real Estate Licensees
- New York Department of State, Checklist for Real Estate Advertising
- New York Department of State, Real Estate Advertising
- NYSAR, Amended Advertising Regulation
- NYSAR, January 2025 Legal Update
Written by Lera Leonteva. Prices and rules change; each one is linked to its own page, read November 2026.