Article 04.05: Listing Content and Virtual Tours

Section 5: Listing Content and Virtual Tours

A. At least one front exterior photo or rendering, aerial photo, or water view from the property (unit) must be loaded before a listing will be active. The front exterior photo or rendering must be entered in the 1st photo slot of the listing on all property types unless the 1st slot is an aerial photo or an exterior photo of a water view from the property (unit), in which case the front exterior photo must be in the 2nd slot, Note: a photo of a swimming pool does not qualify as a water view. 

i. The sellers’ have the ability to withhold photographs from the MLS after written authorization is provided to the listing Broker/Agent and then supplied to the Stellar ’s administration department. A logo will be added when written authorization is received that states “Photo not available per seller’s direction”. (Adopted 6/2011)

B. The only exception is vacant land listings which must have a photo or an aerial photo, rendering, site plot or plat map in the listing’s 1st photo slot. Photographs, images, virtual tours and/or renderings submitted by a Participant or Subscriber shall not be copied by other Participants or Subscribers for use in a subsequent listing of the same property without first obtaining a proper license from the owner of such photographs, virtual tour or renderings. Images not licensed or purchased by the listing broker/agent will result in an automatic fine as outlined in the Automatic Fines Schedule, Level I (See Article 11/Section 4C).

C. Front exterior photos must show a majority of the total home/building and the broker’s yard signage may not be visible in the photo/image. The penalty for non-compliance is outlined in the Automatic Fines Schedule, Level I (See Article 11/Section 4C).

D. Photos, images or virtual tours may not contain company or agent logos, agent photos, commissions, bonuses, contact information for the agent or office, direct or indirect branding for an agent, brokerage or team, text, or graphics of any kind (with the exception of the Stellar MLS watermark) in the virtual tour or photo sections. Only photographs, site plot, property sketch, property line art or survey of the property can be entered in the virtual tour and all photo fields. All content including remarks, virtual tour photos and images must be owned, purchased or licensed by the listing broker/agent, from the content owner. Third-party virtual tour vendor’s contact information (non-interactive) is the only contact information allowed on Virtual Tours. The virtual tour link must be a valid URL and may not contain any Participant/Subscriber names or links to any third party business or social networking sites. The penalty for non-compliance is outlined in the Automatic Fines Schedule, Level I (See Article 11/Section 4C).

E. Room types, dimensions and finishes are allowed in floorplans added as images. Floor plans should not contain any branding but may display copyright notifications for the author of the floorplan. Subscribers must have permission to use copyrighted floor plan images prior to entry into the MLS. 

F. Photos, images or virtual tours featuring people, including if in costume, are not allowed in the MLS. 

G. Upon Stellar MLS receipt of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down notice for a violation on a website URL that is owned by a MLS Participant/Subscriber, MLS staff has the authority to remove the alleged infringing material outlined in the take-down notice from the MLS Listing Content within 2 days excluding weekends and federally recognized holidays. The listing agent and listing broker will be notified via the email address on file. The penalty for uploading content that causes another Participant/Subscriber to receive a DMCA take-down notification is outlined in the Automatic Fine Schedule, Level II (See Article 11/Section 4C) (Amended 1/2021).