MLS Rules for AI Video and Photos: What to Disclose in 2026

MLS rules for AI video and photos rest on a principle that predates AI: listing media must show the property as it is. The National Association of REALTORS®’ 2026 Code of Ethics, Article 12, requires REALTORS® to “present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations,” and Standard of Practice 12-10 extends that duty to “images” and prohibits “use of misleading images.” Every MLS policy we could read builds on it: virtual furniture is fine if labeled, changing walls, floors, views, or fixtures is not, and more MLSs and states now want the original photo next to the altered one.

So where does a video generated from your unaltered listing photos fit? Most MLS rules were written for edited still photos, and the state laws we found define a “digitally altered image” as one where elements of the property were added, removed, or changed. A camera move between two real photos adds nothing and removes nothing — but the frames between them are synthetic, so the conservative practice is to disclose it in the remarks and keep the originals. Rules differ by MLS and by state, this article is an explainer rather than legal advice, and you should read your own MLS rulebook before you publish.

Three Kinds of AI Media, Three Different Answers

“AI” covers three things the rules treat differently. Sort your media first.

The middle row is separate for a technical reason: when the start and end frames are your actual photographs and the AI only renders the move between them, the video contains no feature the photos do not — anyone can check the clip against the two source photos. Our companion piece on whether AI real estate video looks real explains the mechanics.

What NAR Says: Article 12 and the True Picture

Two Articles carry the weight. Article 12 is quoted above, and Standard of Practice 12-10 — last amended in 2018, well before generative AI — already says the true-picture obligation “includes Internet content, images, and the URLs and domain names they use” and prohibits “otherwise misleading consumers, including use of misleading images.” Article 2 adds that REALTORS® “shall avoid exaggeration, misrepresentation, or concealment of pertinent facts relating to the property or the transaction.” Erasing a crack, a stain, or a power line is concealment, whatever tool did it.

NAR has said the practical part itself. Its Styled, Staged & Sold column of June 12, 2025 says agents must make sure “listing photos that have been virtually staged are clearly labeled as such.” A REALTOR® Magazine piece from February 13, 2026 summarizes the industry guidance as “clearly labeling edited images, not substantially changing a property, and avoiding any concealment of property defects.” And a 2023 NAR article on AI and copyright drew the line: using AI to remove a structural crack from a wall violates Articles 2 and 12, “but removing a hose and bucket accidentally caught in a picture is different.”

MLS Rules for AI Video and Photos: What Specific MLSs Require

Here is what the rulebooks and compliance pages we could read say. The wording differs; the pattern — label it, keep the original, never change the property — does not.

CRMLS (California)

CRMLS’s digitally altered image guidance defines one as an image “that has been changed using photo editing software or artificial intelligence,” requires a label in the photo description field such as “digitally enhanced,” “digitally altered,” or “virtually staged,” and says “the original, unaltered version must appear in the listing immediately before or after the digitally enhanced image.” Common edits such as lighting, white balance, straightening, and cropping are allowed “as long as they do not change how the property is represented.” Users may not add elements that are not part of the sale or remove “walls, fixtures, or unsightly elements like utility poles or wires” (Rules 11.5, 11.5.2, and 12.10). Bay East applies the same Rule 11.5.2 from January 1, 2026.

Stellar MLS (Florida)

Stellar’s Compliance 101 handout requires “Virtually Staged” in the caption of each virtually staged photo and a Virtually Staged Y/N box that populates the public remarks. Allowed: adding or replacing furniture and other personal property not conveyed with the sale. Prohibited: changing paint colors or landscaping, making a room appear larger or smaller than it is, removing, altering, or adding permanent fixtures, modifying views, and patching walls or removing stains. Its photo rules put it in one line: photos must show “a true and accurate picture of all property features.” For video, the same handout allows only unbranded virtual tours in the MLS, with no contact information or agent branding.

REcolorado (Colorado)

REcolorado’s photo FAQ is permissive on staging — “Virtual staging is not considered manipulating photos or the appearance of the property” — while requiring that enhancements “do not manipulate the true appearance of the property”: no removing permanent objects, no modifying the landscape, no adding improvements that do not exist. Renderings and builder models must be disclosed in the remarks or in each photo’s description.

NorthstarMLS (Minnesota) and ARMLS (Arizona)

NorthstarMLS published guidelines on July 10, 2026 that name AI directly: any photo that is virtually staged, “AI-generated, or AI-enhanced should be identified as such in the photo caption, on the photo or in agent or public remarks,” every modified room needs at least one unaltered “before” image, and “images generated wholly or in part by AI or editing that depict permanent features, structural changes, or improvements that do not actually exist are prohibited.” ARMLS requires a Disclosure of Digitally Altered Images in Flexmls from May 28, 2026, and draws the line the same way: brightness, contrast, color, cropping, and sharpening are not alterations; adding furniture, an accent paint color, or a fire in the fireplace, or removing items, is.

State Laws on AI-Altered Listing Images

Until 2026 these rules lived in MLS rulebooks and the Code of Ethics. Now some are statutes, converging on one definition.

California: AB 723, in force since January 1, 2026

AB 723, approved by the Governor on October 10, 2025, added Section 10140.8 to the Business and Professions Code. It defines a digitally altered image as one “altered through the use of photo editing software or artificial intelligence to add, remove, or change elements” such as fixtures, furniture, landscaping, and neighboring properties, and excludes images where “only lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, exposure, or other common photo editing adjustments are made.” A broker or salesperson who uses one in an ad must include “a statement disclosing that the image has been altered and a link to a publicly accessible internet website, URL, or QR code” to the original, with the statement “reasonably conspicuous and located on or adjacent to the image.” PFAR’s summary puts the effective date at January 1, 2026 and notes the duty applies across marketing channels, not just the MLS. The statute is written around images; its text does not address video.

On September 27, 2026 the Governor signed AB 2025 (Chapter 572), which carries the same disclosure into rental advertising through a new Civil Code Section 1940.11 — relevant to short-term-rental hosts — and whose definition explicitly covers an image “fully generated by artificial intelligence software.”

Wisconsin: 2025 Act 69, effective January 1, 2027

Wisconsin’s Assembly Bill 456 became 2025 Wisconsin Act 69, which HousingWire reported on January 13, 2026 as requiring disclosure “when technology materially alters how a property is presented in marketing imagery,” effective January 1, 2027. NAR’s February 2026 magazine piece notes the same 2027 date.

New York and New Jersey: bills in committee

New York’s A11635, introduced July 29, 2026 and sitting in the Assembly Housing Committee, would require “a statement disclosing that the image has been altered,” “conspicuously located on or adjacent to each altered image,” with the unaltered version included when the ad is posted online. New York City’s mayor proposed in July 2026 that landlords, brokers, and listing platforms disclose when rental photos or videos were created or altered with AI — notably naming video. In New Jersey, the Assembly Housing Committee advanced A4728 on May 15, 2026, a bill that would bar deceptive AI or photo-editing alteration of listing images, require photos to reflect current condition and be no older than five years, and exempt staged furniture. None of the three had been enacted when this article was written.

The FTC and the Portals

Outside the MLS, federal advertising law applies to everyone, licensed or not, including a short-term-rental host with a website. The FTC’s advertising FAQ for small business states the standard: “advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive,” and an ad is deceptive if it contains a statement or omits information that “is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances” and is “material.” An omission counts when it “leaves consumers with a misimpression about the product.” A listing video that shows a finished basement the house does not have fails on every clause. When it announced its Operation AI Comply sweep on September 25, 2024, the agency put it plainly: “there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books.”

The portals are moving the same way. Real Estate News reported on September 8, 2026 that Zillow’s standards “require that listing photos accurately represent the home,” that it supports disclosure when AI alters a photo, and that “the original photo should be available alongside the altered version when possible.” The same report cites a June 2026 Coraly study in which nearly 11% of roughly 40,000 primary listing photos across the major portals showed evidence of digital alteration in the first quarter of 2026.

How to Disclose AI Video in the MLS: Template and Checklist

Disclosure has three parts: what you say, where you say it, and what you keep. The templates below use wording the MLSs above accept.

Templates

• Video generated from unaltered photos: “Video generated from listing photos with AI; no features added or removed. Source photos are included in the listing.”
• Virtually staged photo: “Virtually staged” in the photo caption or description field, plus a first line in the public remarks: “One or more photos have been virtually staged; unstaged originals are included.”
• Fully synthetic render or AI-generated image: “AI-generated concept image — not a photograph of the property.” Never use one for a feature that does not exist and will not exist at closing.

Where it goes

Put the line in the public remarks — Stellar’s checkbox writes it into the first words of the remarks for a reason — and in the photo or media caption where your MLS has one. For altered images, California’s statute and New York’s bill want the statement on or adjacent to the image, and NorthstarMLS accepts a label on the photo itself. For video, the media or virtual-tour link is usually the only field, so the remarks carry the disclosure. Keep the MLS file unbranded, as Stellar requires, and repeat the line wherever the clip travels: Standard of Practice 12-10 covers your internet content, and AB 723 covers every marketing channel.

Checklist before you publish

1. Start from unaltered photos of this property — no virtual staging in the source pair unless you disclose the staging too. Our guide to photos for an AI walkthrough video covers which pairs work.
2. Generate a camera move only. If the clip shows a chair, window, or doorway that is in neither photo, do not publish it; re-render with a different pair. Our guide to what gives AI video away lists the tells.
3. Watch it full screen once, pausing at the midpoint.
4. Add the disclosure line to the public remarks and to the media caption if there is one.
5. Keep the originals and the export; where a rule or statute requires the original in the listing or by link, provide it.
6. Keep the MLS version unbranded; put your name and the price on the social version only.
7. Read your MLS rulebook and check for a state statute — California now, Wisconsin from 2027, possibly yours next.
8. When in doubt, disclose more than the rule requires. Over-disclosure has no penalty.

For the mechanics — which photos, which move, how to export — see how to turn listing photos into a walkthrough video and our step-by-step on creating an MLS video.

Are AI Real Estate Videos Legal? The Short Answer

Yes, when they show the property as it is and say what they are. No rule or statute we found bans AI video; all of them ban misrepresentation, and the MLS rules for AI video and photos that exist in 2026 — CRMLS, Stellar, REcolorado, NorthstarMLS, ARMLS — together with California’s AB 723 and Wisconsin’s Act 69 reduce to three moves: label anything altered, keep and provide the original, and never add, remove, or change a feature of the home. A clip generated from two unaltered listing photos with nothing added is the easiest case to comply with, provided you disclose it in the remarks and keep the photos. Your MLS and your state may say more; read them, and when they are silent, disclose anyway.