Skip to content
PROPWALK

Free · editable · printable · not legal advice

A listing-photo policy your office can adopt this afternoon.

California brokers must supervise listing advertising with written policies and a review system. Since January 1, 2026, altered listing images also need a disclosure and the original. This template covers both. Fill in your brokerage name, print it, sign it, and keep the acknowledgment page in each agent's file.

[Brokerage name]

Listing Advertising Policy: Digitally Altered Images and Image Tools

Effective 2026-09-02 · Responsible broker: [Broker of record]

1. Purpose and scope

This policy governs every photograph, video, floor plan and rendering used to advertise a property listed with [Brokerage name], on the MLS, on portals, on social media, in print, and in any message to a consumer. It applies to every licensee affiliated with [Brokerage name] and to any person producing listing media on a licensee's behalf, including photographers, assistants, and outside services.

2. Definitions

Enhancement means adjusting lighting, white balance, exposure, contrast, cropping or straightening, where nothing in the room is added, removed, or changed. Enhancement is not alteration.

Digital alteration means anything else: virtual staging or furniture added or removed; personal items or clutter removed; sky, lighting or season changed; walls, floors, counters, cabinets, fixtures or finishes changed; views, landscaping or exterior features changed; and any concept or renovation preview. Removing items from a room counts as alteration.

Original means the photograph as captured, before any alteration.

3. What may never be altered

No listing image may add, remove, or change a permanent feature of the property: walls, doors, windows, roofing, siding, ceilings, floors, fireplaces, driveways, grading, or square footage. No image may add a view, a landmark, or an amenity that does not exist, distort room dimensions, or remove a defect (damage, wear, exposed wiring, water intrusion). Landscaping may not be shown changed unless the seller has agreed in writing to make the change before close.

4. Disclosure procedure for altered images

Every digitally altered image used in advertising must:

  1. carry a conspicuous disclosure in the photo description or on the image (for example, “Virtually staged. Original unstaged image included.”);
  2. be accompanied by the unaltered original, either placed immediately before or after it, or reachable at a link stated in the disclosure;
  3. where the MLS requires it, mark the virtually staged field and begin the public remarks with the sentence the MLS prescribes;
  4. follow the specific rule of the MLS it is posted to. Rules differ. The current rule set the office follows is kept at the address in Section 7.

These requirements apply equally when a photographer, assistant, or outside service produced the image. The licensee who publishes the image is responsible for the disclosure.

5. Approved tools and the record kept

Licensees may only alter listing images with tools on the office's approved list. A tool is approved when, for every altered image, it keeps (a) the original, (b) the disclosure wording, and (c) a record of who produced the image and when, and makes those three available to the responsible broker on request.

Approved as of the effective date: PropWalk (propwalk.io), which delivers the original, the disclosure text, and a hosted originals page with every altered export. The responsible broker may add or remove tools by written notice.

Consumer image apps, chat tools, and general design tools that do not keep the original and a record are not approved for listing images that will be published.

6. Review and supervision

[Broker of record] (or a designee named in writing) reviews listing advertising for compliance with this policy: every new listing's photo set before or within two business days of MLS entry, and a sample of active listings monthly. Findings are recorded. An image that fails review is corrected or removed within one business day. Records under Section 5 and review findings are retained for three years.

7. Sources this policy follows

California Business and Professions Code §10140.8 (AB 723, effective January 1, 2026); the California DRE advisory of March 17, 2026 on automated tools in real estate advertising; 10 CCR §2725 (broker supervision); the rules of the MLS(s) the office belongs to; and NAR Code of Ethics Articles 2 and 12. The office's current summary of these rules: propwalk.io/mls-compliance.

8. Acknowledgment

I have read the [Brokerage name] Listing Advertising Policy and agree to follow it for every listing I market.

Licensee name: ______________________________ DRE #: ______________

Signature: __________________________________ Date: _______________

Responsible broker: ___________________________ Date: _______________

The record this policy asks for

Section 5 expects every altered image to carry its original, its disclosure, and a record of who made it and when. Every PropWalk photo export already ships those three things, with a hosted originals page for the listing. See the rule set or set it up for the whole office.