Before and after: what is allowed
Every listing photo is edited to some degree, and that is fine. The question is not whether you may edit, but where editing tips over into misleading a buyer, which is where it stops being allowed.
Nobody expects an unedited photo. Buyers understand that a good agent brightens a room and corrects the colours, just as a print magazine would. What the law objects to is not editing but deception: an image that gives a materially false impression of the property. Hold that distinction and the rules almost write themselves.
Clearly allowed
- Exposure, contrast and brightness so the room is easy to see.
- White balance and colour correction for honest, neutral tones.
- Straightening walls and correcting lens distortion.
- Removing a temporary distraction you simply forgot to move, like a bin or a cable.
Allowed only with a label
Virtual staging and a full sky replacement are lawful, but since August 2026 they must be marked as edited. They change the image in a way a buyer could take for reality, so a visible caption is the price of using them. Labelled, they are a legitimate tool. Unlabelled, they drift toward misleading advertising.
Not allowed
Editing away a defect crosses the line. Painting out damp, cracks, mould or a stain hides a fact about the property, and that is misleading whether or not anyone calls it fraud. The same goes for enlarging rooms, faking a view or removing a power line that genuinely runs past the window. If the edit hides something a buyer would want to know, it is not allowed, label or not.
The rule that keeps you safe
One sentence covers almost every case: improve the photo, never fake the property. If an edit makes the existing space look its best, you are on safe ground. If it changes what the buyer would find at the viewing, you are not. When in doubt, ask whether the photo still matches the front door.
The example above shows both at once. The room is brightened, which is pure exposure and needs no note. Behind the open window the sky was blown to pure white, and clouds and town have been redrawn, which is why the picture carries a label. The line does not run along the tool but along the question of whether a fact about the property has been added.