Not legal advice. We're a staging company, not a law firm. This is a plain-English read of the bill text for people making a staging decision. For how it applies to a specific listing or marketing piece, ask your broker's counsel or your MLS compliance desk.
1. What the Bill Actually Says
The operative requirement is short. A real estate broker or salesperson who includes a digitally altered image in an advertisement or other promotional material for the sale of real property must include a statement disclosing that the image has been altered.
Two details do the real work:
- Placement. The statement has to be reasonably conspicuous and located on or adjacent to the image. A line in the agent remarks at the bottom of a listing doesn't meet that.
- The originals. You have to give buyers a route to the unaltered version — a website, a URL, or a QR code. Disclosure alone isn't enough; the real photo has to be reachable.
That second requirement is the one most people miss. It means keeping and publishing the unstaged photographs, not just labelling the staged ones.
2. What Counts as "Digitally Altered"
The bill draws the line at substantive changes — adding, removing, or changing elements of the property. It specifically excludes minor adjustments like lighting, sharpening, white balance, and colour correction.
The practical test: would a buyer standing in that room see something different from the photograph?
| Treatment | Where it lands |
|---|---|
| Virtual staging — furniture or decor added digitally | Disclosure territory. The room is empty in reality. |
| Digitally removing clutter, a pole, a neighbouring building | Disclosure territory. Something real was taken out. |
| Changing flooring, paint, countertops, landscaping | Disclosure territory. The finish shown isn't the finish sold. |
| Exposure, white balance, sharpening, colour correction | Exempt. Standard photo processing. |
| Physical staging — real furniture, photographed normally | Outside the bill. The photo shows the actual room. |
3. Why This Changes the Virtual-Staging Calculation
Virtual staging has always been cheaper than physical staging. Its appeal was that a buyer scrolling listings couldn't tell the difference.
AB 723 removes that. Done correctly, a virtually staged listing now says "this image has been digitally altered" next to the photo, with a link to the empty room. The buyer sees both. What you're left with is a labelled illustration sitting beside a photograph of an empty space — which is a weaker sales position than either an honestly empty listing or a genuinely staged one.
There's a second cost that isn't about compliance. Buyers who fall for a virtually staged photo and then walk into an empty room feel misled, and that reaction attaches to the property. A disclosure at least prevents the ambush. It doesn't create the emotional connection that made staging worth doing.
We have an obvious interest here — we sell physical staging. So take the self-interested part with appropriate salt. The part that isn't self-interested: if you use virtual staging, disclose it properly. The downside of getting this wrong is regulatory, and it lands on the agent's licence, not the vendor's.
4. A Practical Compliance Checklist
If any image in your marketing has been altered beyond exposure and colour:
- Label the image itself — visible text on or immediately beside the photo, not in the remarks
- Publish the originals at a URL, and put that link or a QR code where a buyer will find it
- Apply it everywhere, not just the MLS — the bill covers advertisements and promotional material generally, which takes in your website, flyers, social posts, and email
- Keep the unaltered files. You can't link to an original you deleted
- Check your MLS rules too. They may be stricter than the statute, and they're enforced separately
5. Where Physical Staging Sits
Outside all of it. Real furniture in the real room means the photograph shows what the buyer will walk into, so there's nothing to disclose and no original-versus-altered pair to maintain.
That isn't an argument that every listing should be physically staged — it costs more, and there are listings where neither kind of staging is worth it. It's just worth knowing that the compliance overhead lands entirely on one side of that choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does AB 723 require?
Disclosure that an image has been digitally altered, placed reasonably conspicuously on or adjacent to the image, plus access to the unaltered version by website, URL, or QR code.
Does it apply to virtual staging?
Yes. Adding furniture or decor digitally changes what a buyer would see standing in the room.
What edits are exempt?
Lighting, sharpening, white balance, and colour correction — ordinary photo processing.
When did it take effect?
It was chaptered on October 10, 2025, and applies to California listings now.
Do I have to disclose physical staging?
No. The bill concerns digitally altered images. Physical staging puts real furniture in the real room.
What are the penalties?
Violations fall under existing Real Estate Law provisions, under which violations constitute crimes. We're not lawyers — ask your broker's counsel about exposure on a specific listing.
About this summary. Based on the text of AB 723 as published by the California Legislature. Bill text and status can be confirmed at the Legislature's public bill information site. Confirm current requirements with your broker's counsel and your MLS before relying on this for a live listing.