Maryland

Bright MLS (Mid-Atlantic — DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV)

Bright MLS §4.E requires staging to be ‘disclosed in the MLS’ — no wording, no field, no watermark. §4.A.2 prohibits any text or graphics superimposed on a listing photo.

Answer first

Yes — and the whole rule is one sentence. Bright MLS Rules, Appendix E §4.E.1: “Virtually-staged photo(s)/rendering(s) must be disclosed in the MLS.” That is all Bright says. It prescribes no wording, names no field, does not require a caption, does not require the unstaged original, and does not require a watermark. What Bright does say, in §4.A.2, is that listing photos may not include “any contact or identifying information nor any text or graphics that have been added or superimposed on them”, nor “any readable text, graphics, contact information of the list office, list agent(s), co-list agents(s), seller(s) or any other person or service provider involved in the marketing, sale or lease of the property” — and §3.A that images “may not convey any marketing or promotional messages”. So across DC, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia the disclosure has to go in the listing record, and stamping it on the picture is the one method that breaks the rules. Staging itself is limited to personal property — furniture, mirrors, artwork, plants — except on To-Be Built and Under Construction listings, where §4.E.5 permits rendering all facets of the real property. Adding a view that is not physically possible, or removing power lines, water towers or nearby highways, is ‘strictly prohibited’ in every case.

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Maryland

What Bright MLS (Mid-Atlantic — DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV) requires

Disclosure required	Yes
Required label wording	NONE required — and a burned-in label is a rule violation. Bright prescribes no wording anywhere; §4.E.1 asks only that the staging “be disclosed in the MLS”. §4.A.2 prohibits photos containing “any readable text, graphics, contact information of the list office, list agent(s), co-list agents(s), seller(s) or any other person or service provider involved in the marketing, sale or lease of the property” and “any contact or identifying information nor any text or graphics that have been added or superimposed on them”. §3.A adds that images “may not convey any marketing or promotional messages”. NOTE: competitor pages assert that Bright ‘requires “Virtually Staged” in the photo caption’, ‘requires a visible watermark on the staged image itself’, and requires the agent to ‘produce the pre-staging JPEG if asked’. None of the three appears in Bright’s policy, and the watermark claim is the opposite of what §4.A.2 says.
Label placement	Not applicable — on-image text and graphics are prohibited. Bright names no location for the disclosure; the compliant options are the parts of the MLS record that are not the image (remarks and listing data fields). Because Bright does not specify, confirm the current preferred location with Bright’s support desk before standardising a workflow across a brokerage.
Listing description must disclose	No
Original photo required	No

Alterations this rule covers:

THE RULE IS ONE SENTENCE AND IT NAMES NO LOCATION. §4.E.1 verbatim: “Virtually-staged photo(s)/rendering(s) must be disclosed in the MLS.” Bright prescribes no wording, no field, no caption and no watermark. The duty is to disclose somewhere in the MLS record — which, read together with §4.A.2, means somewhere that is not the image itself.
DEFINITION — §4.E verbatim: “‘Virtual Staging’ means using software to create a photo or conceptual rendering of what a room or property could look like, if it was staged or lived in.” Note the wording is ‘using software’, not ‘photo editing software’ — broad enough to cover generative AI tools on its face.
SUPERIMPOSED TEXT AND GRAPHICS ARE PROHIBITED. §4.A.2 lists what photos and renderings “may not include”, verbatim: “Images of any identifiable person — real, animated, computer-generated, or otherwise.” · “Any readable text, graphics, contact information of the list office, list agent(s), co-list agents(s), seller(s) or any other person or service provider involved in the marketing, sale or lease of the property.” · “Any contact or identifying information nor any text or graphics that have been added or superimposed on them.” · “Any signs or identifying logos.” The third bullet is the operative one: ‘any text or graphics that have been added or superimposed’ is unqualified.
NO MARKETING MESSAGES ON IMAGES — §3.A verbatim: “Images should depict the property available for sale and may not convey any marketing or promotional messages made on behalf of the Listing Broker or associated Subscriber.” A vendor-branded compliance badge is a promotional message on behalf of a service provider.
PROHIBITED INCLUSIONS — §4.E.2 verbatim: “Modifying photo(s)/rendering(s) to include visual elements not within a property owner’s control is strictly prohibited. For example, editing in a view of a scene that is not physically possible from the specified location in the real world.”
PROHIBITED EXCLUSIONS — §4.E.3 verbatim: “Modifying photo(s)/rendering(s) to exclude visual elements not within a property owner’s control is strictly prohibited. For example, removing power lines, water towers, or nearby highways.”
WHAT IS PERMITTED — §4.E.4 verbatim: “Modifying photo(s)/rendering(s) to include personal property items not conveyed with the real property is permitted. For example, it is permitted to apply digital photos of furniture, mirrors, artwork, plants, etc. into a photo of an empty room, or to remove existing furniture from a photo and replacing it with digital images of furniture, mirrors, artwork, plants, etc.”
NEW CONSTRUCTION — §4.E.5 verbatim: “Virtually-staged photo(s)/rendering(s) on either (a) To-Be Built; or (b) Under Construction; is permitted for all facets of real property conveyed to a buyer in a sale.” As in MRED, the personal-property-only limit lifts for unbuilt property; the §4.E.1 disclosure duty is not lifted with it.
NO AI-SPECIFIC PROVISION and NO ORIGINAL-PHOTO REQUIREMENT. Full-text search of the Aug 14 2024 Bright MLS Rules finds no AI clause, no watermark requirement, and no before/after or ‘produce the pre-staging file’ obligation anywhere in Appendix E.

Supported — you finish the MLS steps

That’s the Bright MLS (Mid-Atlantic — DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV) rule. We add nothing to the photo, which is what this board requires; you still complete the MLS-side step this board lists.

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What this does — and what you still do

SEAREI produces the disclosure artifacts: a disclosure-labeled export, your unaltered original hosted at a public URL, a public verification page, and a certificate with integrity hashes.
SEAREI does not guarantee that any MLS, board, or regulator will accept your listing, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Board rules change — each board page shows the date we last verified it.
You complete the MLS-side steps your board requires (field or public-remarks entry, uploading the original, image ordering) and confirm the current rule with your MLS or broker before publishing.
Nothing here is legal advice.

See the full Terms of Service.

What the agent must do

To meet the Bright MLS (Mid-Atlantic — DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV) rule, an agent completes these MLS-side steps (from the cited source):

Disclose the virtual staging somewhere in the MLS record (not on the image) (Section 4.E.1).
Do not add or superimpose any text, graphics, contact info, or branding on the listing photo (Section 4.A.2; Section 3.A).
Limit staging to personal property except on To-Be Built/Under Construction listings (Section 4.E).

The rule

Bright MLS Rules, Revised Aug. 14, 2024 — Appendix E, Policy on Images and Documents in the MLS. §4.E (Virtual Staging) imposes the disclosure duty: “Virtually-staged photo(s)/rendering(s) must be disclosed in the MLS.” §4.A.2 (Listing Photos and Renderings) governs what may appear on a listing photo; §3.A and §3.G set the general image requirements and the removal remedy. Rule 1.8 of the main rulebook incorporates Appendix E by reference. The same policy is also published standalone as ‘Policy on Images and Documents in the MLS’, dated February 28, 2024, with identical §4.E text.

Effective 2024-08-14.

Published by Bright MLS, LLC — serving Mid-Atlantic: DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV.

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Penalty

UNVERIFIED — do not publish a dollar figure for Bright MLS. A full-text search of the Aug 14 2024 Bright MLS Rules PDF returns no dollar amounts and no fine schedule for image or staging violations. The only remedy stated in the policy itself is removal: §3.G verbatim, “The MLS may remove any image from the MLS Database that does not conform to the MLS’s Rules.” Bright’s citation and fine schedule, if published, was not located in a public primary source; confirm with Bright before asserting an amount.

FAQ

Does Bright MLS require a ‘Virtually Staged’ watermark on the photo?

No — and it prohibits one. Bright’s Policy on Images and Documents, §4.A.2, says listing photos may not include “any contact or identifying information nor any text or graphics that have been added or superimposed on them”, nor “any readable text, graphics, contact information of the list office, list agent(s), co-list agents(s), seller(s) or any other person or service provider involved in the marketing, sale or lease of the property.” Section 3.A adds that images “may not convey any marketing or promotional messages”. The disclosure duty in §4.E.1 is satisfied in the MLS record, not on the image.

Where exactly do I disclose virtual staging in Bright MLS?

Bright does not say. The rule reads in full: “Virtually-staged photo(s)/rendering(s) must be disclosed in the MLS.” No field is named, no wording is prescribed, and no caption is required. Read with §4.A.2, the one place it cannot go is the image itself. Because the policy is silent on location, confirm the current preferred field or remarks convention with Bright support before standardising a brokerage-wide workflow.

Which states does the Bright MLS staging rule cover?

Bright MLS is the Mid-Atlantic multiple listing service covering the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Appendix E applies to all listing content in the Bright database, so one rule governs staging disclosure across the whole footprint — unlike Texas or California, where the answer changes by board or by statute.

Do I have to keep or upload the unstaged original photo for Bright MLS?

No. Nothing in Appendix E requires a before/after pair, a same-view unaltered image, or the production of a pre-staging file on request. Bright imposes one duty — disclose in the MLS — plus the content limits in §4.E.2 to §4.E.4. Guides that describe a Bright ‘pre-staging JPEG’ obligation are not quoting the policy. Keeping the original is still good practice, and California’s §10140.8 does require it — but Bright does not.

What virtual staging edits does Bright MLS prohibit?

Two, both ‘strictly prohibited’. §4.E.2: modifying a photo or rendering “to include visual elements not within a property owner’s control … For example, editing in a view of a scene that is not physically possible from the specified location in the real world.” §4.E.3: modifying “to exclude visual elements not within a property owner’s control … For example, removing power lines, water towers, or nearby highways.” Permitted under §4.E.4 is personal property: adding or replacing furniture, mirrors, artwork and plants.

What is the fine for undisclosed virtual staging in Bright MLS?

No published amount could be verified. A full-text search of the Bright MLS Rules (Revised Aug. 14, 2024) returns no dollar figures and no fine schedule for image or staging violations. The remedy the policy itself states is removal — §3.G: “The MLS may remove any image from the MLS Database that does not conform to the MLS’s Rules.” Any specific fine figure should be confirmed with Bright directly.

Sources

Last verified 2026-08-27.

MLS compliance overview (pillar)

Related markets

The rule differs board by board. A few related markets to compare — the full list is on the compliance overview:

Central Virginia (CVR MLS) · Chicago (MRED) · Charlotte (Canopy MLS)

This page summarizes publicly available rules for general information and is not legal advice. Confirm current requirements with the cited source or your broker or legal counsel before relying on it.