Recently there has been an increase in aerial photos to advertise and market listings.  Both RAHB and CREA have policies regarding the use of multi-media photo images. Please review the policies below to ensure you are in compliance. Any photo images that do not comply may be reviewed and removed by RAHB and/or CREA.

RAHB MLS® Rules and Regulations:

Section 7 – MLS® Data and Other Board Publications

Associations Website

7.19  REALTOR.ca is a member developed and financed site, the purpose of which is to augment the member-to-member Board MLS® Systems. This policy ensures that the member-to-member aspect is respected on REALTOR.ca and on direct multimedia links from REALTOR.ca to facilitate ongoing member participation on the site. Further, this policy ensures that REALTOR.ca displays information that consumers expect to see based on the link they wish to use. It is inappropriate to use links for any other purpose than what they are intended for. It is also not appropriate to have an advertisement of private sales on webpages linked directly from multimedia links. For the purpose of this policy, “advertisement of private sales” means calling to the attention of the public that a listing is a private sale.

Examples of advertisement of private sales would include, but are not limited to:

  • Any reference to “selling privately”
  • References to dealing directly with the seller e.g. for showings, offers, etc.
  • For Sale By Owner branded marketing materials e.g. a brochure that refers to or is branded with the logo or name of a FSBO company
  • Directions or links to a FSBO company or website or otherwise referring to a FSBO company.

Seller contact information is itself a form of advertisement of private sales and should not appear on webpages linked directly from multimedia links. Advertisement of private sales, including seller contact information, is permitted on the REALTOR®’s own website or his or her brokerage website (subject to the Seller Contact Information policy set out above).

  1. Each field provided through the upload for multimedia links must be used as a link to the identified service and must contain only property-specific information.

Field 63 – alternate feature sheet
Field 64 – virtual tour
Field 65 – sound bites
Field 66 – sales brochure
Field 67 – additional photos
Field 84 – Board preferred map service to locate property

RAHB’ MLS® Policies – Photos/ Images

  1. Photos submitted with any overlay of text will not be accepted; with the exception of sketches.
  2. Photos with people and/or their direct image will be subject to review by the MLS® Department; and may be refused or removed. This includes, but is not limited to, photo slots or other media; and or attachments.
  3. Photos/images uploaded to RAHB’s MLS® system will not be accepted if they include embellishments, including but not limited to advertising, marketing as related to the salesperson, broker or brokerage.

CREA MTC Policies:

Use of Multimedia Links

  1. Each field provided through the upload for multimedia links must be used as a link to the identified service and must contain only property-specific information.

CREA PRIVACY

Taking pictures of houses for use in marketing materials could raise privacy concerns.

For additional information regarding Privacy (PIPEDA), CREA has provided additional resources on REALTORlink® and can be viewed by clicking here.