Can Sellers Keep Security Cameras On During Showings?

Nearly every seller has a doorbell camera now and almost nobody thinks about it until the first showing is booked. Then a buyer agent asks whether the cameras are on, or a seller sits in the car watching somebody open the pantry, and the question gets real. There are two separate answers here, one legal and one commercial, and sellers tend to get the legal one roughly right and the commercial one badly wrong.

What Arizona Law Says About Video

Silent video of your own home is broadly legal, and the statute that limits it is about privacy, not about cameras.

A.R.S. 13-3019 makes it a felony to knowingly photograph, videotape, film, digitally record or secretly view another person without that person's consent in two situations. The first is in a restroom, bathroom, locker room, bedroom or other place where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, while they are undressing, nude, using the toilet or engaged in sexual activity. The second is any recording that captures a person's genitalia, buttock or breast, clothed or unclothed, that is not otherwise visible to the public. A violation involving a device is a class 5 felony.

Then read subsection C, because that is the part sellers should care about. Among its exemptions is recording done for security purposes where notice of the recording equipment is clearly posted at the location. That clause is most of the playbook. A camera covering an entry or a hallway, with a sign on the door, is a security camera. The same camera tucked into a guest bedroom with nothing posted anywhere is the fact pattern the statute was written to punish.

So the practical rule for video is short. Entries, driveways, yards and common living areas, yes. Bedrooms and bathrooms, no, and that includes a smart display or a nanny cam somebody forgot was in there. Post notice either way, since the exemption is written around notice and it costs you nothing.

Audio Is the Part That Bites

Arizona is a one party consent state for conversations you are in, and a camera sitting in your empty kitchen is not in the conversation.

The Arizona Association of REALTORS has written about the underlying rule for its members, citing A.R.S. 13-3005: if you are a party to a conversation, you may record it without the other person's consent. That is accurate, and during a showing it is also beside the point, because you are not there. Section 13-3005(A)(2) makes it a class 5 felony to intentionally intercept a conversation or discussion at which the person is not present, without the consent of a party to that conversation. A buyer and their agent talking in your kitchen while you are at the office is precisely that conversation.

Which is why the answer is not simply to disclose the microphone and carry on. Whether a posted sign gets you to the consent the statute asks for is a real legal question with a felony on the other side of it, and that is a question for a lawyer rather than a blog post. The low risk move is to turn interior audio off at the device, not just in an app setting you might forget to check, and leave it off until the house closes.

Estimate What You Would Walk Away With

Why Disclosing Helps You Sell

Because a buyer who discovers a camera you never mentioned stops trusting everything else about the house.

Cameras are not a defect, so they are not a disclosure item the way a roof leak or a cracked slab is. The reason to put them in writing is commercial. A buyer agent who walks in cold, spots a lens over the island and realizes the seller has been watching the whole tour now has a client who will not relax in your living room. People do not write offers on houses where they felt observed.

The cheap place to handle it is the showing instructions field and a sign at the door, so every agent reads it before walking in. Say what is recording, where, and whether audio is off. Vacant homes are the easy case, since nobody objects to a camera protecting an empty house.

The market gives you a reason to care. The ARMLS November 2026 STAT report, published November 12 with October data, counted 27,980 active listings, up 9.6 percent year over year, with months of supply at 6.04 against 4.72 a year earlier. Closed sales fell 17.2 percent year over year and the median sales price slipped 2.2 percent to $440,000. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30 year fixed at 7.11 percent as of November 12, a fourth straight weekly decline. A buyer working the Phoenix market with almost 28,000 choices does not negotiate harder on a house that made them uneasy. They go look at the next one.

The Seller Who Listens and Loses the Deal

Listening in feels like leverage and costs money.

Buyers say unkind things in houses they are about to make offers on. It is how people talk themselves into spending half a million dollars. A seller who hears a stranger call the kitchen dated starts negotiating from insult instead of from the comps, and that is where otherwise fine deals die. An October 2026 piece in BAM described exactly that: a seller who heard a buyer's family criticizing the house through the cameras and then rejected their offer.

There is also less intelligence in it than sellers imagine, because buyer agents have adapted. One agent quoted in the same piece said she asks the listing agent before every showing whether there are recording devices and tells clients she treats every showing as though a camera could be present, so the price talk happens in the car. You are hearing the polite version and paying for it with your own objectivity.

What to Do Before the First Showing

Walk the house with your phone and make a list of every device with a lens or a microphone, then work through it.

Take down or unplug anything in a bedroom or bathroom, including baby monitors and smart displays, and do it before the photographer arrives rather than before the first showing. Turn audio off on everything that stays. Keep exterior cameras running, because lightly staged homes get walked through by people who are not buyers. Put a short notice at the entry and the same language in the showing instructions, and tell your listing agent in writing what is on. Then decide now that you will not watch the feed during tours, which is a discipline question rather than a legal one. If the house will sit empty, moving out before you sell changes the security math, and how many showings it takes gauges how many strangers walk through.

Where This Gets Past Me

I am a mortgage broker, not a lawyer and not your lawyer, so take the statute summaries above as a starting point rather than a ruling.

Statutes get amended, exemptions are fact specific, and whether a posted sign satisfies a consent requirement in your situation is not something I can answer. Read the current text of 13-3005 and 13-3019 on the legislature's site, and if you are thinking about leaving interior audio on, pay a real estate attorney for an hour first. Your MLS and your brokerage may have their own rules on recording devices, separate from the law. Nothing here promises a faster sale or a higher price.

What we do is introduce sellers to listing agents vetted on production, price band, property type and the neighborhoods they work. The full sequence is in our step by step guide to selling a house here, our loan programs page covers financing the next place, we keep a page for every city we lend in, and Arizona Luxury Property Search is where to look if you are moving up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to record buyers on video during a home showing?

Silent video in common areas of your own home is broadly legal. A.R.S. 13-3019 prohibits recording a person without consent in a bathroom, bedroom or other place with a reasonable expectation of privacy in the circumstances the statute lists, and subsection C exempts recording for security purposes where notice of the equipment is clearly posted. Keep cameras out of bedrooms and bathrooms, and post notice.

Can I record audio of buyers talking in my house while I am not there?

That is the risky one. A.R.S. 13-3005(A)(2) makes it a class 5 felony to intentionally intercept a conversation or discussion at which the person is not present, without the consent of a party to it. One party consent covers conversations you are actually in, and a camera in an empty room is not a participant. The safe move is turning interior audio off at the device.

Do I have to tell buyers my security cameras are recording?

The notice exemption in the video statute is built around notice being clearly posted, so posting it is the cautious reading. Beyond the statute there is a selling reason: a buyer who finds an unmentioned camera stops trusting the house. Put it in the showing instructions and on a sign at the entry so every agent can tell their client before walking in.

Should I watch the camera feed while buyers tour my house?

Most listing agents would tell you not to. Buyers criticize houses they are about to make offers on, and a seller who hears it tends to negotiate from insult instead of from the comps. BAM reported in October 2026 on a seller who heard a buyer's family criticizing the home and rejected their offer afterward.

What should I do with cameras and smart devices before photos?

Remove or unplug anything with a lens or microphone in bedrooms and bathrooms, including baby monitors and smart displays, before the photographer arrives. Turn audio off on whatever stays, keep exterior cameras running for security, post notice at the entry, and tell your listing agent in writing exactly what is on.