Compliance, built into every frame.

Bus. & Prof. Code § 10140.8Since 1 January 2026, a California real estate broker or salesperson — or anyone acting for them — who uses a digitally altered image to advertise a property for sale must do two things. Put a statement that the image has been altered on or next to it, where a viewer will notice. And include a link, URL or QR code to a publicly accessible page that shows the original, unaltered image and clearly identifies it as the original. When the listing is on a site the broker controls, the unaltered images belong in the posting itself.

“Digitally altered” means adding, removing or changing elements of the property: furniture, fixtures, appliances, flooring, walls, paint, landscaping, the facade, even a utility pole or a neighbouring building. Adjustments that do not change what the property is — exposure, white balance, colour correction, sharpening, straightening, cropping — fall outside it. Virtual staging falls squarely inside.

Vesta handles the statement. Every render leaves the pipeline with a permanent disclosure mark burned into the image itself. It is applied before you ever see the frame, and no plan can switch it off.

Vesta publishes the original, and gives you the link. Every staged photo has a public page showing the original you uploaded, labelled as the original, beside its staged version. Each export carries a QR code to that page, and every listing has one link to all of its originals for the MLS remarks or link field. Placing that link or QR wherever the photo is advertised is the one step Vesta cannot take for you. If your MLS does not allow QR codes in photos, switch the QR off at export and use the listing link instead.

And Vesta keeps a record the law does not require. Every render and every export is fingerprinted with SHA-256 and written to an append-only ledger that the database refuses to edit or delete. If a staged photo is ever questioned, you can show which exact file Vesta produced, when, and that it carried its disclosure.

A plain-language summary, not legal advice. Read the enacted text of AB 723 (Chapter 497, Statutes of 2025), and check your MLS’s own rules, which may add requirements of their own.