For licensed agents

Can agents use another brokerage’s listing photos and descriptions?

Not on your own say so. A listing photo is a copyrighted work, usually the photographer’s, and the NAR Code of Ethics treats copying another broker’s listing information as advertising that needs the listing broker’s specific authority. Get permission that names the photos and the description, and credit the brokerage that holds the listing.

Photos belong to someone, and it is usually not the agent

The U.S. Copyright Office’s Copyright Basics circular is short on this point:

“The copyright in a work initially belongs to the author(s) who created that work.”

For a photograph the author is the photographer, unless the photographer was hired in a way that makes the hiring party the author. The same circular says protection exists automatically from the moment a work is fixed, and that owning a copy of a work does not give you the copyright. Copyright gives its owner the exclusive rights to reproduce a work and to display a pictorial work publicly. Posting a photo to Marketplace does both.

NAR’s own magazine piece on listing photo copyright, from July 2016 and flagged on the page as possibly out of date, describes one common arrangement: the photographer keeps ownership and the participant grants a license, and a participant can license photos only if they own them or have obtained the rights. In plain terms, the listing brokerage may hold a license to use the photos, and that license may not stretch to handing them to you.

The permission an agent has to get

Standard of Practice 12-4 in the 2026 NAR Code of Ethics opens with this sentence:

“REALTORS® shall not offer for sale/lease or advertise property without authority.”

NAR’s Code Comprehension sheet on Article 12 (January 2022) applies it to social media. Its answer to an agent who is not the listing broker is that copying and publishing another broker’s listing information is considered advertising and does require specific authority from the listing broker. The same sheet says linking to another broker’s website does not require specific authority.

The state rules say the same thing in their own words. Colorado Rule 6.10.F.1 asks for the owner’s broker’s written permission and a conspicuous disclosure of the owner’s brokerage firm, and Rule 6.10.C makes brokers responsible for advertising that complies with copyright laws, as quoted on our Arizona and Colorado rules page. Arizona’s R4-28-502(I) asks for “the written consent of the property owner” before a specific property is published to an electronic medium.

A yes from the listing brokerage is the first step, not always the last

The listing brokerage can speak for its own listing. Whether its yes also covers the photographer’s rights depends on the photographer’s agreement, which you cannot see. So put the question in the request. Ask for permission that names the photographs and the description, and ask whether the license on the photos allows your use.

The address, so the permission is for one home or a named list.
The photos and the written description, named separately.
How long the permission runs, and who tells whom when it ends.
The credit line the brokerage wants, and a photographer credit if the license asks for one.
Whether the photographer’s license allows social media use.

Keep the reply. The full walkthrough is in how to ask a managing broker for permission.

Credit is separate from permission

Standard of Practice 12-10 lists, among the things an agent’s duty to present a true picture prohibits, “presenting content developed by others without either attribution or without permission.” The wording names both. Crediting the listing brokerage does not replace the yes, and a yes does not excuse leaving the credit off. That is why each post should carry a listing courtesy line.

The description

The NAR photo article does not address written descriptions, and we found no NAR or state source that separates facts from the written text of a listing. The Code Comprehension sheet treats copying listing information as advertising that needs the listing broker’s authority, so ask for the description in the same request. If you do not have a yes, write your own text from details you are entitled to state, or link to the listing broker’s page instead of copying it.

What we could not verify

Whether a particular listing brokerage’s permission reaches its photographer’s rights. That sits in agreements we cannot see, so a lawyer or the listing brokerage has to answer it.
Where facts end and protected text begins for a listing description. We found no source that draws the line, and we did not guess.
Hawaii. We found no Hawaii rule on reusing another brokerage’s photos. See the Hawaii page for what Hawaii does say about written authorization.

Read the sources yourself

Where Listing AutomatEr fits

Listing AutomatEr is a desktop app for Mac and Windows that posts the listings you have permission to market to Facebook Marketplace, with attribution: your name as the agent marketing the home, and the listing courtesy line for the brokerage that holds it. It does not obtain the permission or the photo license for you. Those stay with you and the listing side.

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