Guide · 2026-10-25

Unbranded virtual tour rules for MLS listings: what agents need to know

There is no single national virtual-tour rule. Each MLS writes its own. The pattern in the boards that publish a rule is strict about the public media field and looser everywhere else. Read your board before you upload. The examples below are the rules those boards posted, not a guess at yours.

What "unbranded" means when a board defines it

NorthstarMLS gives fields for up to two unbranded virtual tours, and it says those tours are then shown on agent and broker sites. Its page says the tour should only describe the property and its vicinity. The tour site should not link to any other site, for any reason. The tour should not promote anything other than the property. It should not include identifiable people, or people who become the subject. An unidentified narrator is allowed, and that narrator should not name the listing agent or any other person or company. The page does allow the tour vendor's logo, or the listing office, in 10-point type.

MLS Now rule 3.1, effective August 3, 2026, prohibits visible branding, watermarks, photos of the agent or broker, marketing overlays, QR codes and misleading content. Lot lines and labels may be added if they are not the primary photo. The board can remove a non-compliant file and require a correction.

Stellar MLS Article 04.05, updated October 16, 2026, says photos, public attachments and virtual tours may not contain company or agent logos, agent photos, contact information, or direct or indirect branding for an agent, brokerage or team, with a stated exception for the Stellar watermark. The tour link has to be a real URL. It may not contain a participant or subscriber name, and it may not link to a third-party business or a social network. The only contact information the article allows on the tour is the third-party tour vendor's, and that contact cannot be interactive. Offers of compensation are barred from photos, tours, remarks and attachments.

Those three boards are not identical. Northstar allows a small office credit. Stellar's article is tighter on logos and links. Your board may be tighter still, or it may allow a branded URL in a separate field. Open the rule before you assume.

Make two files, and put each one in the right place

Build the tour twice from the same photos.

• The MLS file has the rooms, the price and the facts of the house. It has no name, no headshot, no brokerage logo, no phone number, no email, no website, no QR code and no "call me" line. The voice, if you use one, does not say your name or your company.
• The social file can carry your end card, because you are posting it on an account you control, not in the MLS media field.

Paste only the clean link into the virtual-tour field. Put the branded cut on your site, your email and your social posts. If your board has a second field that explicitly allows a branded URL, that is the only MLS slot for the second link. Do not hide a branded URL in public remarks to get around a media rule. Stellar's article covers remarks as well as the tour.

Northstar also says the tour site itself should not link onward. A tour page that ends in "see my other listings" or a button to your brokerage site fails that page's rule even if the video frames are clean. Use a page that plays the tour and stops.

Do not change the house

Branding is only half the rejection. MLS Now rule 3.3 draws a line through alterations. With a disclosure and an on-image label, it allows virtual staging of movable items such as furniture, rugs and art, plus ordinary exposure, white balance and a sky replacement that does not change the view. It prohibits adding, removing or changing permanent features: walls, windows, cabinets, pools, landscaping, lot lines, neighboring structures, or a defect such as a crack, a stain or water damage. An AI rendering has to be labeled on the image as a rendering, a virtual remodel or AI-generated, and it cannot show a feature that is not there.

Rule 3.2 requires the primary image to be an unaltered current photo, with an architectural rendering allowed for new construction. Rule 3.3.5 says you keep the original and hand it over if the board asks.

In California the duty is statutory, not just an MLS rule. Business and Professions Code section 10140.8 requires a broker, a salesperson, or someone acting for them, who uses a digitally altered image in advertising to put a reasonably conspicuous disclosure on or next to the image, and a link or QR code to the original unaltered image. The section's definition of a digitally altered image includes changes to furniture, fixtures, flooring, paint, landscaping, the facade and the view. It excludes ordinary lighting, crop, straighten, sharpen and color correction. A camera move across a real photo is not an alteration. A pool that was not in the photo is.

A ten-minute check before you hit save

Play the MLS file with the sound on and look for four things.

• Any frame with your name, face, logo, phone, yard sign or car lettering
• Any spoken name or company
• Any button or end screen that leaves the tour
• Any room, object or view that was not in the original photos

If one of those is in the file, export a clean copy. Do not crop a logo and hope the board misses it. MLS Now says it may remove the file. Stellar's article points non-compliance at its fine schedule. The clean cut takes one extra export. The branded cut is the one you post everywhere that is actually yours.