My wife and I are recently new licensed agents. We are designing an ad to go on a billboard/digital sign in town. My question is...do we have to display the Realtor logo, MLS icons on the ad or can we choose to leave them off?

My broker is on a cruise and I would normally ask him but I decided to come to where the real answers are! Thanks.

You probably don't have to have the MLS and Realtor logos, but you do have to have your brokerage name. You should call your state's division of real estate and find out what is required. In my state, the name of the brokerage has to be a certain size compared with the name of the agent. In other words, you can't make your name huge and then teeny tiny have the brokerage name.

Oh also, you may want to think twice about spending that type of money if you are brand new. Billboard advertising is typically "branding" meaning that you will not get any calls from it. It's just simply used to gain name recognition so when they receive your mailer or see your sign they connect.

If you are new, I would spend money on things that will get transactions in the door. Now is not the time for branding.

That is some good advice. We are actually just about to send out 1000 postcards that should be hitting in 1-2 weeks. I don't expect to get any calls from the sign display but just trying to get recognized. This sign will be displaying our ad all year and we continue to do postcard campaigns from now on as well. Thanks for your advice!

I would use your pictures on your cards and any post card mailings along with your company logo.
This works for me very well and is much more personal.
Pass out as many cards as you can, you will get calls down the road if you do, also a good way to get people to keep your business cards over other realtors is to have the contact numbers of police dept., electric company, phone, etc.
This is very handy.