Assumed name

Key Takeaways

• A Washington real estate firm may use one or more assumed names, but it must obtain a separate license for each additional assumed name before using it (RCW 18.85.221).
• All real estate brokerage services must be conducted in the name of the firm or one of its licensed assumed names.
• Every advertisement or solicitation for brokerage services, including web pages, email, and newspaper ads, must include the firm name or an assumed name as licensed (WAC 308-124B-210).
• A team name or personal brand that is not licensed as an assumed name may be used only alongside the firm's licensed name, displayed clearly and conspicuously.

What It Means

An assumed name is a second business name that a Washington real estate firm operates and advertises under, separate from the legal name printed on its firm license. Business owners often call it a DBA, short for doing business as. A firm might hold its license as Cascade Holdings LLC and want the public to know it as Cascade Realty Group. That second name is the assumed name.

The purpose is consumer protection, not branding. When a buyer reads a yard sign, a web page, or a text message, the buyer needs a way to trace that message back to a real licensed Brokerage the state can hold responsible. A name floating free of any license record breaks that trail, so Washington ties the name to the license file instead of leaving it to marketing.

Assumed names sit where two separate rule sets meet. Firm licensing controls which names a firm may use at all. Advertising rules control what must appear in every message the firm sends out. A firm can satisfy one and still fail the other, and that gap is where the trouble usually starts.

How It Works in Washington

RCW 18.85.221 controls the name itself. A license authorizes a firm to operate only under the name appearing on the license, and a firm that wants an assumed name must obtain a separate license for each and every additional assumed name before using it. The Department of Licensing issues that as an assumed name endorsement attached to the firm license. WAC 308-124A-815 then screens the name: the department can deny, suspend, or reject a firm name or assumed name that is derogatory, that is similar or the same as another licensed firm name, or that implies the firm is a public agency, a not-for-profit, or a research organization. The same rule says a real estate firm shall not advertise in any manner using a name which has not been licensed by the department.

Advertising is policed separately. WAC 308-124B-210 requires all advertising or solicitations for brokerage services, including internet based advertising, web pages, email, and newspaper, to include the firm name or an assumed name as licensed. RCW 18.85.361 makes advertising in any manner without the firm's licensed name shown clearly and conspicuously a ground for disciplinary action, with a narrow exception for a licensee advertising personally owned real property. A broker marketing under a title or brand that is not itself licensed must display the firm's licensed name in conjunction with it and must get advance written approval from the firm's Designated Broker.

The endorsement steps are on the Department of Licensing assumed names page, and the advertising side is walked through in this guide to Washington advertising requirements.

Example

Pacific Ridge Holdings LLC holds its Washington firm license under that legal name, and its designated broker, Renee Alvarez, wants the public to see Pacific Ridge Real Estate. She registers the trade name with the Department of Revenue, applies to the Department of Licensing for an assumed name endorsement, and waits for it to attach to the firm license. Only then does she order 40 yard signs. When the firm later opens a Branch Office in Marysville, that office's signs carry the same licensed assumed name.

Six weeks after the signs go up, a new broker on the team, Marcus Webb, launches a site branded Webb Home Group with a $600 monthly ad budget. Webb Home Group is not a licensed assumed name, so every page and every ad must also carry Pacific Ridge Real Estate clearly and conspicuously, and Marcus needs Renee's advance written approval before he uses the brand at all. He adds the firm name to the site header and to the footer of all 12 landing pages, and the campaign runs clean.

Common Mistakes and Exam Traps

• Registering a trade name with the Department of Revenue is not the same as licensing it. The firm still needs the assumed name endorsement on its real estate license before it advertises under that name.
• The advertising rule calls for the firm's name, not the individual's. A sign showing only a broker's personal name and phone number does not satisfy WAC 308-124B-210.
• An assumed name is a name and a branch office is a place. A firm can hold several of each, and adding one does not create the other.
• A firm is not limited to a single assumed name. RCW 18.85.221 lets a firm use one or more, so long as each one is separately licensed.