What the studio does so your listing stays on the right side of the rules.

Altered listing photos have drawn discipline in British Columbia. These are the checks that run on every listing, whether you remember them or not.

Labels are in the pixels

Every staged photo you export carries the words "Virtually staged" rendered into the image itself, in a corner that does not cover the room. A label in a file's metadata disappears the moment a portal re-encodes the photo; one in the pixels does not.

The original travels with the staged version

A staged version is never stored without the original it came from. The export bundle contains both, named as a pair, so an MLS listing can show the original on request and a buyer can see the room as it is.

Furniture is added, never removed

Staging furnishes an empty room. The studio does not remove furniture, clutter or fixtures, and it does not change walls, windows, doors, floors or ceilings. Each result is segmented and compared with the original; a variant where a structural element moved, appeared or vanished is failed and shown to you with the reason, and you decide whether to keep it.

Board remarks, ready to paste

Boards ask for a note in the public remarks when photos are virtually staged. Your board's wording ships in the export bundle as a text file. The wording for the Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Victoria, Calgary and Edmonton boards is drawn from their published practice, and the Ontario boards on PropTx (Toronto Regional, Ottawa, Cornerstone, London and St. Thomas, Niagara, Kingston) carry a disclosure line still being confirmed against live listings; confirm it with your board when in doubt.

Videos disclose, too

A listing video that uses a staged photo ends with a disclosure card. AI-generated motion clips, when they arrive, are labelled and are never placed in an MLS export.

Ontario

RECO, under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, requires advertising to carry the brokerage's registered name and the registrant's, and forbids anything false, misleading or unverifiable. The studio flags claims such as "guaranteed sold", "top producer" and "free appraisal", labels every altered photo and keeps the original with it; the exact remarks wording and the unaltered-photo rule on PropTx are marked to confirm until checked against live listings.

British Columbia

BCFSA's Real Estate Services Rules require advertising to show the brokerage name and forbid anything false or misleading. BCFSA's guidance on digitally altered images asks that they be labelled, truthful, and that the original be available. The studio checks brokerage and agent names on outputs and flags claims such as "number one" or "guaranteed sale" that the rules treat as unverifiable.

Alberta

RECA's Real Estate Act Rules and Advertising Guidelines require the brokerage name with prominence, licensed names without abbreviation, and no misrepresentation. The studio applies the same label, pairing and claim checks, with Alberta's list of prohibited identifier terms.

What the studio does not do

• It does not give legal advice. The rules change; your brokerage's compliance officer has the last word.
• It does not remove the label or the original pairing on request; overriding a structure check is recorded with your name and the reason.
• It does not scrape listing portals or MLS systems.

Questions about a specific case: hello@viarastudio.ca. See also the privacy policy for where photos are stored and which services process them.