Disclosure guide

Disclosure rules, MLS by MLS.

Virtual staging is allowed. What gets an agent in trouble is never the staging — it is the silence about it. These are the rules as the boards publish them, and the three things built into every delivery we make.

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The universal baseline

One duty, three habits

Under the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, Article 2 bars misrepresenting facts about a property, and Article 12 requires marketing to present a true picture. Every board’s staging rule is a local spelling of that same duty. In practice it comes down to three habits:

Label on the image. The staged photo itself carries the words “Virtually Staged,” where a buyer cannot miss them.
Disclosure in the remarks. The listing text says, in plain words, which photos are virtually staged.
Original kept beside it. The unaltered photo of the same room stays with the staged one, so anyone can compare.

Two boards spell the practice out almost word for word. MLS Now’s Rule 3.3 calls for the on-image “Virtually Staged” label with the originals retained; CVR MLS’s Rule 5.8.2 calls for the label, the remarks disclosure, and an unaltered photo of the same view beside the staged one. Where a board’s text differs, the board’s text wins — which is why we confirm it per order.

The line we hand you. Every delivery includes a remarks disclosure ready to paste, in this shape: “Photos 3–7 of this listing are virtually staged. The original, unstaged photos appear alongside them.” Your board’s exact wording, where it has one, is what we follow.

Board by board

The boards we work with most

Jump to: ARMLS (Arizona) · California · HiCentral (Hawaii) · NTREIS (Texas) · RealTracs (Tennessee)

Rule on the books

ARMLS — Arizona

ARMLS treats a staged photo as a digitally altered image, and its Rule 8.23 is written for exactly that case: the alteration must be disclosed, and in Flexmls the original photo sits adjacent to the altered one, so the comparison is one glance away. Enforcement tightens from December 2026, with $200 fines on the table.

What we do on an ARMLS listing: label on the image, disclosure in the remarks, original placed beside the staged photo — the board’s own pattern, built into the delivery.

Source: ARMLS published rules (Rule 8.23), checked October 2026.

State law

California — AB 723

In California this is not just MLS policy; it is state law. Assembly Bill 723, in effect since January 1, 2026, requires digitally altered listing images to be disclosed and the unaltered original to be made available — and an undisclosed altered image is a misdemeanor.

What we do on a California listing: the same three habits, treated as a legal requirement rather than a courtesy — label, disclosure, original beside it.

Source: California Assembly Bill 723 (2025), effective January 1, 2026.

How we handle it

HiCentral MLS — Hawaii

HiCentral is the board our own backyard runs on. Our delivery for a HiCentral listing follows the universal practice on this page: the label on the image, a disclosure in the remarks, and the original beside the staged photo.

Before your first order ships, we confirm HiCentral’s current altered-image rule against the board’s own published text and follow it exactly — the rule as the board writes it today, not as anyone remembers it.

Practice: the three-part disclosure above, plus a per-order confirmation of the board’s current rule.

How we handle it

NTREIS — Texas

NTREIS covers the Dallas–Fort Worth listings we pitch and stage. Our delivery for an NTREIS listing follows the universal practice on this page: the label on the image, a disclosure in the remarks, and the original beside the staged photo.

Before your first order ships, we confirm NTREIS’s current altered-image rule against the board’s own published text and follow it exactly.

Practice: the three-part disclosure above, plus a per-order confirmation of the board’s current rule.

Not publicly verified

RealTracs — Tennessee

RealTracs’ altered-image rule could not be verified from the board’s own public pages when this guide was checked in October 2026. We do not guess at a board’s rule, and we will not quote one we have not read.

What happens on a RealTracs listing: we confirm the current requirement against the MLS’s own rules before your order ships — and the universal three-part disclosure on this page goes out with the delivery regardless.

Status: not publicly verified as of October 2026 — confirmed per order, before shipping.

Selling somewhere else? The same routine applies to any board: the three-part disclosure on every delivery, and your board’s current rule confirmed before the order ships. This is the homework we do on every order.

The other half of disclosure

What staging must never do

A label does not excuse a lie. However a board phrases it, the same things are off limits — the rules above assume them, and so do we:

Move, remove, or resize a wall, window, door, floor, or fixture.
Hide a defect — a stain, a crack, damage of any kind.
Invent a feature, or a view, that the home does not have.
Add people or animals.

A note on this guide. Rules change. This page is a plain-language summary of the boards’ published rules as checked in October 2026; it is not legal advice. Where this summary and a board’s current text differ, the board’s text governs — and we confirm it before your order ships.

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hello@sofritostudio.com · Joshua Ortiz, Impossible Interiors · Instagram @impossibleinteriors