September 23, 2026 · 9 min read

NYC AI Listing Disclosure: Photos, Video and Metro MLS

NYC plans AI-alteration disclosure for rental listings, a NY bill names AI video, and Metro MLS starts fines. What each text actually says.

An agent in New York, Wisconsin or California can now open three different documents about the same listing photo and get three different instructions. One says label it. One says upload the untouched original first. One says the label has to sit on or next to the image. Then the agent turns that photo into a video, and none of the three says clearly what happens next.

This post reads the newest of those documents in their own words: New York City's July 2026 Rental Ripoff Report, a New York Assembly bill filed on 29 July 2026, and a Wisconsin MLS policy whose sanctions start on 1 September 2026. One of them is a plan, one is a bill, and one is already being enforced. That difference decides what you have to do today.

This is general information, not legal advice. MLS and board rules vary and change, so check your own board's published rules and a lawyer before you rely on any of it.

What New York City actually announced

On 16 July 2026 the Mayor's Office released the Rental Ripoff Report. The release lists among the report's recommendations "requiring landlords to disclose when rental listings have been altered using artificial intelligence or other digital tools."

The operative text is in the report itself, in a section titled "Require Disclosure of AI or Digitally Altered Rental Listings" (page 53 of the PDF). It says the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) "seeks to curb misleading rental listings by using its rulemaking authority under the Consumer Protection Law to require that any rental listings containing digitally altered photos include a clear and conspicuous disclosure to consumers that the photos have been modified by AI or were digitally altered."

Three details matter for an agent.

• It is a stated intention, not an adopted rule. The report says what DCWP seeks to do. We searched NYC's published pages and City Record listings on 23 September 2026 and found no proposed rule text, hearing notice or effective date. If you have seen one, send it and we will update this post.
• The rule language says photos. Press coverage describes the plan as covering photos and videos. The report's own rule sentence says photos, and the release says listings altered with AI "or other digital tools." Until DCWP publishes text, treat video as unresolved.
• Enforcement is aimed at the platforms too. The report says that once the rule is final, DCWP will work with StreetEasy, Zillow and other listing companies, as it did on the FARE Act.

This is a rental-listing measure. It does not, on its face, reach a sale listing in Brooklyn. It matters anyway, because it shows which way an enforcement agency is leaning and what standard it chose: clear and conspicuous, in front of the consumer.

The New York bill that names video

Separately, Assembly bill A11635 was introduced on 29 July 2026 at the request of Assemblymember Rosenthal and referred to the Housing committee. It would add section 443-b to the Real Property Law. Read the bill text closely, because it separates two things.

A "digitally altered image" is defined as "a still-photo image" altered "through the use of photo editing software or artificial intelligence to add, remove, or change elements of the real property." Lighting, sharpening, white balance, color correction, angle, straightening, cropping and exposure are carved out.

An "AI-generated image" is defined separately as "a still-photo or video image created in whole or in part by generative artificial intelligence."

The duty applies to "a real estate broker, seller, property owner or property manager" advertising "the sale or lease of real property." They must include a statement "conspicuously located on or adjacent to each altered image." If the ad is on a website, they must include the unaltered version of the images or a link to the original. The act would take effect on the sixtieth day after it becomes law.

Two cautions. First, it is a bill in committee, not law. Second, the text names AI-generated video but writes the unaltered-original requirement around digitally altered images. The bill does not say what the "original" of a generated clip would be. A drafter fixing that gap could go either way, so do not treat it as settled.

The Wisconsin MLS that already fines

Metro MLS, a Wisconsin MLS, published its new photo upload requirements on 21 April 2026. Members must:

• upload an original, unaltered main listing photo first in the photo collection;
• upload the original photo immediately followed by the watermarked altered photo, using only the Flexmls watermark feature;
• include the phrase "Photos are Digitally Altered" in the Public Remarks.

The page says that starting 1 September, digitally altered photos without the required watermark are subject to a $10 sanction, and digitally altered primary photos incur "a $10-per-day sanction until replaced." It defines "digitally altered" as software or AI used "to add, remove or materially change its content," and gives virtual staging, modifying structures or landscaping, and changing views as examples. Brightness, contrast, color, cropping and sharpening are not altered.

The page is about photos. We found no sentence about video or virtual tours. It also points to 2025 Wisconsin Act 69, which creates a statutory duty from 1 January 2027 to "disclose if the advertising has been altered or modified using technology, including artificial intelligence, to add, remove, or change elements of the property that creates a false or misleading impression." The statute's scope is all advertising, not just photos.

Five documents, five different jobs

For the California row, the chaptered bill text and the DRE's March 2026 advisory are the sources; our earlier post on the original-image link workflow covers the mechanics.

The table shows the pattern. Every one of these texts turns on what the tool did to the picture: added, removed, changed or generated something. The label duty follows the alteration, not the file format. And the label has to sit where the viewer sees it, which is why our earlier post on caption versus on-image placement matters more each month.

Where video falls between the texts

Video is the gap. California's statute says "image." Metro MLS talks about photos. NYC's report says photos. Wisconsin says all advertising. New York's bill is the only one that names video, and only for generative output.

We covered the California question in our reading of AI listing video disclosure rules: no regulator has said how an image-to-video clip is treated, and we do not claim one has. What is clear is the duty behind all of these texts. The NAR Code of Ethics, Article 12 requires REALTORS to "present a true picture" in advertising, whatever the format.

That points to a practical test, whatever the wording of the rule in your market. Ask two questions of every clip. Does it show anything the photograph does not contain? Could a viewer walk in and find the room different? A clip that only moves the camera across pixels the photo already holds is a different kind of object from a clip that paints a new patio.

Where Pic2VidTour comes in

Pic2VidTour is the best AI picture-to-video tool for real estate listings, and this pile of rules is the reason. Every one of the texts above draws its line at the same place: elements added, removed, changed or generated that the photograph does not show. A tool that generates footage of rooms and drone flights that never happened lands on the wrong side of that line by design.

Pic2VidTour animates only the listing's real photos. Every scene is animated from one real photo of the actual property, every clip is checked against the photo it came from, and a scene that fails the check does not ship. The check looks for warped walls, furniture that moved, objects that appeared or doubled, a car that moved, a changed view through a window, and a first frame that does not match. A flagged scene is re-filmed once at no charge; if it fails again, it ships as a clean photo pan. Requests to fabricate space are refused rather than billed.

That mechanism does not remove your duty, and it would be wrong to say it does. An AI model still produces the moving frames, so an "AI-enhanced video" disclosure caption ships on by default. You can switch it off. Where a rule like Metro MLS's or New York's bill could reach your clip, leave it on. The tool cannot upload your originals to the MLS, fill in Public Remarks or post the link the California statute wants. Those steps are yours.

What it gives you is a file you can describe honestly. The price is shown before anything runs at $1.50 per AI scene, with the photo pans, the music track and the branded closing contact card included. A 12-photo listing quotes as 12 AI scenes plus music, $18.00. Editing is free and unlimited; only re-filming a scene with AI costs $0.65, quoted in the director chat before it runs. Delivery is usually within the hour, as a 16:9 master and a 9:16 vertical reel plus a share link. See the Help Center for how the caption and edits work.

What to do next

1. Find your market's actual text. Open your MLS's published rules and search for "altered," "virtual staging" and "digitally." Note whether it says photos, images or advertising, and where the label must sit.
2. Keep every original. Store the untouched photo set for each listing. California wants a link to it, Metro MLS wants it uploaded first, and New York's bill would want it beside any altered photo.
3. Decide your caption habit before a rule forces it. Keep the AI-enhanced caption on for any clip made with a generative model. A label you applied first is easier to defend than one you added after a complaint.
4. If you list rentals in New York City, watch DCWP and the City Record. Nothing binding exists yet, but the report has already told you the standard: clear and conspicuous.
5. Try one listing. Upload the photos you already have to Pic2VidTour, read the quote before you approve it, and check the finished clips against the originals yourself.