Special offer

Spam prevention
Rainmaker
1,311,397
John Juarez
The Medford Real Estate Team - Fremont, CA
ePRO, SRES, GRI, PMN

Who owns the photos: the creator or the one who pays for the creation?

I believe that our photographer licenses the use of the photos to us for use on mls and marketing materials...and to all of the websites that receive the photos from our mls. I will ask those who may know for sure.

Our mls rules say: "By submitting photographs to the MLS, the participant and/or subscriber represents and warrants that he or she either owns the right to reproduce and display such photographs or has procured such rights from the appropriate party, and has the authority to grant and hereby grants the MLS and the other Participants and Subscribers the right to reproduce and display the photographs in accordance with these rules and regulations. Use of photographs by a subsequent listing agent requires prior written authorization from the originating listing agent or other appropriate party with the legal right to reproduce and display such photographs." 

 

Nov 06, 2019 02:30 PM
Rainmaker
5,583,278
Barbara Todaro
RE/MAX Executive Realty - Happily Retired - Franklin, MA
Previously Affiliated with The Todaro Team

if you posted them, whether you paid for them or took them yourself, they are yours.... you can take them down.... and no one should be using them.... they're your photos.

Nov 06, 2019 02:41 PM
Rainmaker
1,052,211
Candice A. Donofrio
Next Wave RE Investments LLC Bullhead City AZ Commercial RE Broker - Fort Mohave, AZ
928-201-4BHC (4242) call/text

As soon as they are posted on our MLS, we 'give them' to the MLS . . . so the photographer loses control. As soon as I pay for them, actually! They're mine and then MLS gets to use them . . . I can also use them elsewhere.

Nov 06, 2019 03:24 PM
Rainmaker
2,390,620
Bob "RealMan" Timm
Ward County Notary Services - Minot, ND
Owner of Ward Co Notary Services retired RE Broker

My feeling are "Who Cares!". I don't want the pics after my contract has expired.

Nov 06, 2019 02:53 PM
Ambassador
6,393,179
Bob Crane
Woodland Management Service / Woodland Real Estate, KW Diversified - Stevens Point, WI
Forestland Experts! 715-204-9671

Depends, who paid for them and did they let the photographer get away with keeping the copyright.

Nov 06, 2019 03:24 PM
Ambassador
2,061,792
Alan May
Jameson Sotheby's International Realty - Evanston, IL
Home is where the hearth is.

Nov 06, 2019 02:18 PM
Rainmaker
7,836,134
Roy Kelley
Retired - Gaithersburg, MD

Follow the rules of your MLS.

Nov 06, 2019 01:50 PM
Rainer
509,449
Susie Kay
Ultra Real Estate Dallas Fort Worth - Plano, TX
North Dallas Specialist

If the listing agent pays or takes the photos then they are his/hers.

Nov 06, 2019 05:52 PM
Rainmaker
1,598,452
Valeria Mola
SIB Realty - Miami, Sunny Isles Beach - Sunny Isles Beach, FL
305-607-0709 SIB Realty Condos for Sale and Rent

I'd say we give rights to our MLS, even they are my pictures.

Nov 06, 2019 05:23 PM
Rainmaker
1,502,998
Ryan Huggins - Thousand Oaks, CA
https://HugginsHomes.com - Thousand Oaks, CA
Residential Real Estate and Investment Properties

If you take them, you own them.  Many MLS's require you to sign away rights to them when you join so that they can brand them and republish them through syndication.

If you pay a photographer, that's a grey area and depends on what your contract says.

Nov 06, 2019 03:42 PM
Rainmaker
1,231,853
Mary Yonkers
Alan Kells School of Real Estate/Howard Hanna Real Estate - Erie, PA
Erie/PA Real Estate Instructor

Mott Marvin Kornicki Check with your MLS as others have said.

Nov 06, 2019 03:41 PM
Rainmaker
5,104,931
Nina Hollander, Broker
Coldwell Banker Realty - Charlotte, NC
Your Greater Charlotte Realtor

That depends.

Nov 06, 2019 03:02 PM
Rainmaker
5,772,575
Ron and Alexandra Seigel
Napa Consultants - Carpinteria, CA
Luxury Real Estate Branding, Marketing & Strategy

If  I paid for the photos with all rights, they are mine. A

Nov 06, 2019 02:46 PM
Rainmaker
3,416,038
Scott Godzyk
Godzyk Real Estate Services - Manchester, NH
One of the Manchester NH's area Leading Agents

Depends if you have a contract with the photographer where they retain the photo rights which i would never agree to. If i am paying for them they are mine. When posted in the MLS, they are still mine and why i take my own as i am a self proclaimed professional photographer too

Nov 06, 2019 03:55 PM
Ambassador
3,345,091
Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist
KD Realty - 408.972.1822 - San Jose, CA
Probate Real Estate Services

That would be outlined in the MLS policies. I belong to the same MLS as John. 

Nov 07, 2019 08:05 AM
Ambassador
5,229,951
Debe Maxwell, CRS
Savvy + Company (704) 491-3310 - Charlotte, NC
The RIGHT CHARLOTTE REALTOR!

It varies from state to state, MLS to MLS, Mott.

Nov 06, 2019 08:27 PM
Rainmaker
2,071,025
Evelina Tsigelnitskaya
SIB Realty - Sunny Isles Beach, FL

My photos, but we gave the rights to MLS. 

In real life agents "borrow" your pictures here and there...

And only one time I was upset with the agent, who took all my pictures from an expired listing. He told me he took those pictures. I was really 

and it took a few days with Miami Association of Realtors to remove all of them.

Nov 07, 2019 01:36 PM
Rainmaker
758,035
Peter Testa
Nationwide Homes - Danbury, CT
PETER TESTA

Our MLS puts their watermark on the photos & claims rights to them. That goes as far as WHO can use them. It doesn't interfere with you using them on websites or social media. MLS frowns on you deleting them once they are on there but you have a delete button.

Nov 07, 2019 05:14 AM
Rainmaker
5,216,398
Wayne Martin
Wayne M Martin - Chicago, IL
Real Estate Broker - Retired

The person who took them or paid to have them taken! 

Nov 07, 2019 04:19 AM
Rainmaker
911,338
Jeff Pearl
RE/MAX Distinctive / LIC in VA - Lovettsville, VA
Full Service Full Time Realtor

If you hire and pay a photographer, you own them.

Nov 07, 2019 01:33 AM
Rainmaker
5,868,538
Joan Cox
House to Home, Inc. - Denver Real Estate - 720-231-6373 - Denver, CO
Denver Real Estate - Selling One Home at a Time

I pay for them, but there are rules by the professional photographer.

Nov 14, 2019 05:20 AM
Rainmaker
4,936,677
Will Hamm
Hamm Homes - Aurora, CO
"Where There's a Will, There's a Way!"

If you pay for them you do.

 

 

Nov 13, 2019 08:38 AM
Rainmaker
901,535
Carla Freund
Keller Williams Preferred Realty - Raleigh, NC
NC Real Estate Transition & Relocation 919-602-848

The agent unless the photographer tells you something different in writing. You cannot use photos in the MLS as they belong to other agents. I pay my photographer to take neighborhood and community photos for me. They belong to me. 

Nov 09, 2019 12:17 PM
Rainer
231,948
Eva B. Liland Century 21 Doug Anderson
Century 21 Doug Anderson - Lancaster, CA
Glad to be of Service 661-714-1643

I have never hired a photographer, instead I bought a camera with a wide angle lens that with my sense of the layout, looks great.  Most of my sellers love the pictures that I take. As far as MLS, none are watermarked and I don't really care if my association is the owner or not. As far as stealing pictures that another agent had on their own listing, never done that.

Nov 09, 2019 06:34 AM