Virtual staging disclaimer: what to write on listing photos

Virtual staging is legal and widely used. The problem is never the furniture; it's a buyer feeling misled when they walk into an empty room that looked furnished online, or when something that was edited turns out to be part of the house. A clear label turns staging from a surprise into a helpful picture of how the space could be used.

For agents in the United States, the National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics already covers this. Article 12 asks members to “present a true picture in their advertising”, and Standard of Practice 12-10 extends that duty to images and rules out “misleading images”. A virtually staged photo with an honest label is a true picture; the same photo without one can read as a claim about the home.

Tip: The safest habit is simple: if you would have to explain a change to a buyer at the showing, label it in the photo.

California made disclosure a legal requirement. AB 723 was signed in October 2025 and took effect on January 1, 2026. It applies to licensed brokers and salespeople, and to anyone advertising on their behalf, who use a digitally altered image of a listed property.

• A digitally altered image is one changed to add, remove or materially change physical features — virtual staging, swapped flooring or cabinets, removed furniture.
• Routine enhancements don't count: brightness and exposure, color correction, cropping, straightening, sharpening and noise reduction.
• The altered image needs a clear disclosure that it was digitally altered.
• Online, the unaltered original has to be available alongside it, for example paired in the listing or reachable from the altered photo.

If you're not sure whether an edit counts, the San Diego MLS guidance puts it plainly: when in doubt, disclose. Agents outside California should still treat AB 723 as the direction of travel — it is the clearest written standard so far.

Keep the wording short and plain. A buyer scrolling on a phone should understand it at a glance.

• On the image or in its caption: “Virtually staged” — or “Digitally altered” when you changed more than furniture.
• In the MLS: tick the virtual staging field if your MLS has one, and follow any required sentence in the public remarks.
• Next to the original: “Original photo — before virtual staging”, so the pair is obvious.

Put the label where it survives sharing. Text in the caption can be lost when a portal crops or a photo is forwarded; a small, legible label in a corner of the image travels with it. Don't hide it in a long description below the gallery.

Keep every original. You need it for AB 723 in California, for a buyer who asks what the room really looks like, and for your own records. EmptyRoomStaged shows every result next to the photo you uploaded, but save your own copy of the original too: uploads are deleted after 30 days.

MLS rules differ, so read yours, but they tend to draw the same line. Stellar MLS, one of the largest in the country, is a good example of how it reads in practice: photos “must represent a true and accurate picture of all property features.”

• Usually fine: adding or changing furniture and decor that won't stay with the home, brightening a dark photo, removing small items that are easy to remove in real life.
• Not fine: removing or swapping permanent fixtures, changing paint colors, adding landscaping, hiding power lines or covering up material flaws.

That's why showing a new wall color or floor is a planning tool, not a listing photo, unless the work has actually been done — and why removing furniture from a photo should stop at things that leave with the seller. Before you publish, compare each staged image with the original: windows, doors, outlets and radiators should all still be where they are in the house.

1. Every staged or altered photo carries a visible “Virtually staged” or “Digitally altered” label.
2. The MLS virtual staging field and any required remarks are filled in.
3. The unaltered original sits next to each altered photo (required in California since January 2026).
4. Nothing permanent was added, removed or changed — only furniture and decor.
5. You checked each image against the original for moved windows, doors or fixtures.

Staging is cheap compared with renting furniture — see what virtual staging costs per photo — but a missing label can cost far more in trust. Ten seconds per photo is enough.