AB 723 Virtual Staging Compliance: The Complete §10140.8 Guide

California’s disclosure law for digitally altered listing images.

AB 723 is the California bill that amended Business & Professions Code §10140.8 to address digitally altered images in real estate advertising. In plain terms: if a broker, salesperson, or anyone acting on their behalf uses an image that has been digitally altered — including AI virtual staging — in advertising or promotional material, that image now carries specific disclosure requirements.

This matters because virtual staging has become standard practice. Empty rooms get furnished, clutter gets removed, dated interiors get modernized — all digitally. AB 723 doesn’t ban any of that. It requires you to disclose it, in a specific way, on the image itself.

The California Department of Real Estate (DRE) has separately warned that AI-modified property images fall under these disclosure obligations. So “the AI did it” is not an exemption — if anything, AI staging is squarely what the law is aimed at.

Four separate things on every altered image.

This is the core of the law, and the part almost everyone gets partially wrong. §10140.8(a)(1) imposes four separate requirements:

1. A statement that the image was altered. A clear label such as “Virtually staged” or “digitally altered.” Most brokerages do this — it’s the one requirement people remember.
2. A publicly accessible URL or QR code to the original, unaltered image. A buyer or MLS officer must be able to click or scan through to the original photo of the actual space. A label with no link to the original fails here.
3. The disclosure placed conspicuously on or adjacent to the image. Burying it in a downloadable PDF, a separate verification page, or fine print elsewhere in the listing doesn’t satisfy it — this is where most “compliant” workflows actually fail.
4. Language telling viewers the original can be accessed at that link. The access instruction has to travel with the disclosure — e.g., “View the original, unaltered image at this link.” A bare “Virtually Staged” stamp misses this entirely.

The requirements are cumulative. Satisfying one, two, or even three of the four still leaves the image non-compliant. For a requirement-by-requirement breakdown with compliant vs non-compliant examples, see §10140.8: The 4 Requirements for Staged Listing Photos.

“Virtually Staged” satisfies one requirement and fails three.

The single most common mistake is assuming a “Virtually Staged” label covers you. It doesn’t — it satisfies requirement #1 and fails #2, #3, and #4.

San Diego MLS guidance puts it bluntly: “labeling alone is not sufficient.” Under that guidance you must label the image, place the original adjacent to the altered image, and label the altered image with the original-image URL. CRMLS guidance similarly treats “digitally altered” / “virtually staged” as acceptable labels but still expects the original image to appear immediately before or after the altered image in the listing.

In other words: the industry’s own MLS bodies read §10140.8 the same way the statute’s plain text does — the disclosure and the path to the original have to live with the image, not in a separate document.

The shortest wording that is defensible under §10140.8(a)(1): “This image has been virtually staged and digitally altered. View the original, unaltered image at [URL] or scan the QR code.” If your staged photos don’t carry something equivalent — on the image — they’re exposed.

Licensing, supervision, and liability exposure.

Non-compliant advertising under §10140.8 can be referred to the California DRE. For an individual agent that’s a licensing and disciplinary risk; for a brokerage, it’s a supervision and liability concern that lands on the designated officer (see AB 723 compliance for brokers). The practical exposure isn’t theoretical — it’s the kind of thing a buyer’s agent, a disgruntled party, or a regulator can point to on a specific listing. (We don’t quantify penalties here — enforcement practice is still developing; consult your counsel for specific risk.)

The asymmetry is what makes this worth solving once: getting the disclosure right costs almost nothing per listing, while getting it wrong is a per-image liability that scales with every property you stage. For who carries the risk and what a DRE referral looks like, see AB 723 penalties & DRE enforcement.

Two ways to satisfy all four requirements.

The manual way. Burn a disclosure label onto each staged image, host the original somewhere public, generate a QR code or short URL that resolves to it, and place that disclosure on or adjacent to the image everywhere the listing appears — including the MLS and your own website (§10140.8(a)(2) has a separate clause for sites you control). It’s doable, but it’s per-photo work that’s easy to do inconsistently across a team.

The automated way. Use a platform that bakes all four elements onto the image at the point of staging, so compliance isn’t a separate step someone has to remember. That’s what SEAREI does.

For the manual method spelled out step by step, see How to Disclose Virtually Staged Photos in California.

Built around the four requirements of §10140.8.

SEAREI was built specifically around §10140.8. Every certified image carries all four elements:

• Statement of alteration — a disclosure label burned onto the staged image.
• Public URL / QR to the original — a QR code on the image that resolves to the unaltered original.
• On-or-adjacent placement — the disclosure is rendered into the delivered image and the public listing hero, not a separate PDF or page.
• Access language — the “view the original” instruction travels with the disclosure.

The result is a staged photo that’s MLS-ready and defensible the moment it’s delivered — not a pretty image you then have to make compliant yourself.

Related questions about AB 723 virtual staging.

The disclosure rules, board by board.

AB 723 is California law, but most MLS boards now require a virtual-staging disclosure. Each guide covers the exact rule, what an audit looks like, and the disclosure wording SEAREI applies.

Related AB 723 guides.

Where these requirements come from.

• California Business & Professions Code §10140.8 (AB 723): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
• California Department of Real Estate (DRE): dre.ca.gov
• CRMLS implementation guidance on digitally altered / virtually staged images.
• SDMLS implementation guidance — “labeling alone is not sufficient.”

By Sam M. Vardani, Co-founder, SEAREI · Last updated: June 5, 2026 · SEATECHONE LLC

SEAREI is built around the requirements of California Business & Professions Code §10140.8. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by the California Department of Real Estate or any MLS. This guide is compliance guidance, not legal advice; for a legal opinion on your specific situation, consult your brokerage counsel or designated officer, and confirm current requirements with your MLS.