Can you edit real estate listing photos?

The short version

• Usually fine: lighting, white balance, colour correction, exposure, sharpening, straightening and cropping, as long as the property is shown as it is.
• Not fine: adding, removing or changing real parts of the property, hiding defects, or making a view look closer than it is.
• Allowed with a label in some places: virtual staging and other digital alterations, often with the unaltered original shown next to them.

The sections below quote each rule. We read every source on 30.10.2026. This is not legal advice.

Before After

Examples we made ourselves to show the kind of work. They are not client properties or client ads.

United States: the NAR Code of Ethics

Article 12 of the NAR Code of Ethics says REALTORS® “shall present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations.” Standard of Practice 12-10 extends that duty to “Internet content, images, and the URLs and domain names they use” and prohibits “otherwise misleading consumers, including use of misleading images” (NAR, 2026 Code of Ethics, effective 1 January 2026).

The Code does not list which edits are allowed. Your MLS rules do that, and they differ.

California: CRMLS and AB 723

Since 1 January 2026, California's AB 723 and CRMLS Rule 11.5.2 set rules for digitally altered listing images. CRMLS explains them as follows (CRMLS guidance, updated 20 October 2026):

• Allowed without a label: “Common photo edits, such as adjustments to the lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping, and exposure, are allowed as long as they do not change how the property is represented.”
• Altered images: label them, for example “digitally enhanced”, “digitally altered” or “virtually staged”, and “the original, unaltered version must appear in the listing immediately before or after the digitally enhanced image.”
• Never allowed: “users CANNOT add, remove, or modify any real part of a property such as wall color, flooring, cabinets, wall dimensions, landscaping, etc.”
• AI tools: “AI-altered images count as digitally altered images”, while “Minor photographic adjustments, such as brightness, color correction, sharpening, or lighting are not affected by this rule.”

We quote CRMLS's reading of AB 723. If you list in California through another MLS, check its own guidance, and ask it if you are unsure how it treats a given edit.

Australia: NSW Fair Trading

NSW Fair Trading's advertising guidelines say that photographs “touched up to hide undesirable characteristics or enhance other features could also mislead consumers.” Agents must not “change the appearance of a property by digitally removing or adding features (adjusting the lighting effects only to compensate for poor lighting may be acceptable)”, and must not “zoom in on a photograph of a view from the property to make that view appear closer” (NSW advertising guidelines).

The guidelines link this to the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, the Fair Trading Act 1987 and the Australian Consumer Law. Other states have their own regulators.

United Kingdom: The Property Ombudsman

The Property Ombudsman's code for residential estate agents in England, Wales and Northern Ireland asks agents to “take all reasonable steps to ensure that all statements that you make about a property, whether oral, pictorial or written, are accurate and are not misleading” (TPO code, paragraph 7i).

“Pictorial” covers photos. The code sets the standard, not a list of allowed edits.

Holiday rentals: Airbnb

For short stays the platform sets the rule. Airbnb says it “will ask hosts to remove content if AI or other digital technology has been used to edit flaws, hide damage, add amenities or attributes that are not part of a listing, or otherwise misrepresent the listing” (Airbnb, Ground rules for home hosts).

A checklist before you upload edited photos

• Put the edited photo next to the original. Is anything in the property different?
• Are walls, floors, cabinets and the garden the same colour and condition as on a viewing?
• Does any view look closer, bigger or clearer than it is from the property?
• Has anything been removed: a power line, a crack, a neighbour's wall?
• Does your MLS or portal ask for a label or the original next to an altered photo?
• Keep the original files, in case anyone asks to see them.

Where Framelift fits

We change light, white balance, windows, colour and detail only. Nothing in the property is added, removed, moved or restyled, and we don't stage, remove objects, replace skies or change views. We use AI-assisted editing, and every photo is checked against its original before delivery.

We can't tell you how your MLS or regulator will treat a given photo. If a rule asks you to show the original, you already have it: it is the photo you sent us. More on our real estate photo editing page.