MLS rules · United States
Virtual staging rules, board by board
There is no national virtual staging rule. NAR sets a truth standard and each MLS decides what a listing photo has to carry. These are the boards we have read, quoted and dated, and the four different regimes they fall into.
The four regimes
| Regime | Boards we verified | What the listing owes |
|---|---|---|
| No staging clause at all | OneKey MLS (New York) | Nothing staging-specific; the general accuracy rule still applies. |
| No disclosure required | Doorify MLS (North Carolina) | Nothing, as long as the photo does not misrepresent the property. |
| Label on the image | ARMLS (Arizona) | An MLS watermark reading “Digitally Altered”, plus the original frame beside it. |
| Label plus the original frame | CRMLS (California); Stellar MLS (Florida) goes further | A label in the photo description field and the unaltered image in the listing. Stellar also requires a field and the first words of the public remarks. |
Read the five in full: CRMLS · Stellar MLS · ARMLS · Doorify MLS · OneKey MLS. Checked 1 November 2026.
Board by board
| Board | Where the disclosure goes | Original photo | What a breach costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRMLS California | Photo description text field: “Virtually Staged”, “Digitally Altered”, “AI Altered” or a similar accurate term. | Required, displayed immediately before or after the altered image. | Warning first, then a $250 fine if not corrected. |
| Stellar MLS Florida | Three places: the photo description field, the virtually-staged checkbox, and the first words of the public remarks. | Not addressed in the published article. | Photos removed and an automatic Level I fine. |
| ARMLS Arizona | A watermark burned into the image reading “Digitally Altered”, plus the Flexmls disclosure field. | Required, uploaded directly before or after. | $200; education ran to November 2026 and enforcement starts in December. |
| Doorify MLS North Carolina | None required, stated in writing. | Not required. | Non-compliant media can be removed. |
| OneKey MLS New York | Nothing in the rulebook addresses staging or altered images. | Not required. | The general accuracy rule applies. |
A board that is not on this list may require a different label. We publish a board only after reading its own rule, and we say when we could not.
What every board still bans, whatever the disclosure
What a label does not fix
A label tells a buyer the furniture was added. It does not licence changing the room, and no board we read treats disclosure as permission to alter the property.
- Adding, removing or moving a permanent element: a wall, a door, a window, flooring, cabinetry or a fixture.
- Removing damage a buyer would see at the showing.
- Changing what is visible outside the property, including the view through a window.
- Adding landscaping, grass or a hardscape the property does not have.
- Putting people, branding or advertising text into a listing photo.
- Shrinking the furniture to make a room read larger than it is.
California is a statute, not a board rule
AB 723 added Business and Professions Code section 10140.8 and took effect on 1 January 2026. It applies to a broker or salesperson, or a person acting on their behalf, and it asks for two things: a statement on or next to the image saying it was altered, and a link, URL or QR code to a public page holding the original, unaltered image. It applies whether or not the listing is in CRMLS.
Questions
Is there one national rule I can follow?
No. NAR publishes a truth standard, not a staging rule. The mechanics come from the MLS, and five boards we read require five different combinations of label, field, watermark and original image.
My board is not listed. What do I do?
Read its photo policy or data-integrity rules before you upload, and put the label in the photo description field while you wait. That placement is accepted by every board we read that asks for a label at all.
Does a label hurt the listing?
It is a sentence in a field buyers rarely open, and it is the difference between a listing that survives review and one that gets pulled. The boards that publish a fine publish it for this.
Why publish a page for a board that requires nothing?
Because “nothing is required” is the answer a North Carolina or New York agent needs, and the pages that sell compliance tooling tend not to print it.
Sources
- CRMLS, Digitally Altered Image Guidance & FAQs — page updated 2026-10-20.
- Stellar MLS, Article 04.04: Virtually Staged Photos — page last updated 2026-09-27.
- ARMLS, Digitally Altered Media — Rule 8.23; checked 2026-11-01.
- Doorify MLS, Data Integrity: Media Guidelines — updated 2026-05-28.
- OneKey MLS, Rules and Procedures — version 2026C.
- California Business and Professions Code §10140.8 — added by AB 723, operative 2026-01-01.
Next: disclosure wording you can paste · what changed and when · how we check a rule · review the staged image.
Not legal advice; refer to the official rule text.