The Texas Real Estate Commission in November revised its advertising rules, which go into effect May 15. The January/February issue of Texas REALTOR® magazine answers many questions you may have about the updates. One of those is about what license holders can use as their team name:

Can I use any name as a team name?

No. A team name is a name used by one or more license holders sponsored by or associated with the same broker that is not the broker’s name or an assumed business name of the broker. Team names must end with the terms team or group. Team names cannot contain terms that imply that the team is offering brokerage services independent of the broker. Some prohibited terms are realty, brokerage, company, and associates. The terms real estate and properties are acceptable as part of a team name as long as the team name ends with the terms team or group. Keep in mind that the ad must still contain the name of the broker. Before you use a team name in an ad, the broker must register the team name with TREC.

TREC is now publicizing that it intends to propose a change to the recently adopted advertising rules to reconsider the term realty in team advertising. Read more about TREC’s recent announcement.