Virtual Tours: Follow These 7 Tips for Compliant Listings

Whether you work with a virtual tour company or produce them on your own, follow this checklist to make sure your virtual tours meet NorthstarMLS Rules + Regulations requirements.

The URL link to the virtual tour works.

Make sure to test the link to your virtual tour included in your listing. Make sure it actually works and takes you to the correct virtual tour for the property featured in the listing.

The virtual tour should describe only the physical traits of the property for sale and its vicinity.

Video tours should accurately reflect the properties they feature. Like MLS photos, tours should not include identifiable individuals or individuals that become the focus.

There are no links to any other sites.

Sometimes links may appear embedded in tiny images that take viewers to sites including:

• The production company who made your virtual tour. These include hyperlinked company logos or icons.

• The video or online sharing platform that stores your virtual tour. Again, look for hyperlinked company logos or icons.

• Google. These are often found in maps embedded in the virtual tour and include links to Google, Directions and View Larger Map.

• Social media sites. Look for the familiar social media icons used to share the virtual tour.

• Sharing icon. Watch for the “<” sharing icon (see photo below). Sharing is not permitted and must be disabled within your video tour.

No matter what the purpose, these links can’t be in your video, or the platform used to view it, and you will want to work with your production company or check your software settings to make sure they are not included.

There are no promotions.

The only promotion that can be included in the virtual tour is for the property itself. However, NorthstarMLS guidelines do allow including the tour logo and/or the listing office in 10pt font. Check and make sure that the virtual tour production company and video hosting platform names and/or branding are also omitted.

There are no requests for contact.

Contact links requesting personal data to “Learn More about the Property” are not permitted within the virtual tour. In addition, viewers should not be asked to “Create an Account” or login to view the tour.

Narrators are unidentified.

Unidentified, voice over narrators who do not become the focus of virtual tours are acceptable. Narrators should only be talking about the properties and should not identify themselves, the listing agents or any other individuals or companies to avoid becoming promotional in nature.

A maximum of two virtual tours per listing.

NorthstarMLS allows up to two virtual tours of a property. However, keep in mind that many third-party sites will display only one virtual tour. Although both tours will be available to third parties, other websites may display only the virtual tour in the first position.

Have a video file you want to include in your listing?

As of July 2024 you can do this with the Add/Edit Video Suite. Learn more here.

The NorthstarMLS team is here to help. For more information about virtual tours, visit our Rules + Regs page. Should you have any questions or want us to review your virtual tour, we are happy to take a look for compliance issues. Send us the link to your virtual tour for review to Rules@northstarmls.com.