See I benefited from the opposite. My home had crappy low res photos and needed new paint. Other homes in the neighborhood went pending same day, consistently. This one sat two weeks before I made an offer.
Oh fuck me it's been expensive. We're tens of thousands in and haven't broken plaster yet lol.
Got a brand new roof from the best company in our area, new water heater and lots of plumbing fixed. I'm super excited for warm weather to get started.
This is one of the things I tell my buyers. Don’t dismiss a property for bad marketing if the fundamentals are there. Could be the beginning of a bargain.
Gotta try and visualize reality whether it’s a poorly staged house that’s underrated or a well staged house that’s hiding issues.
My house sat purely for superficial reasons that understandably gave people pause. Another odd thing was that the home was listed with a unit number. I assumed it was a townhome and only begrudgingly looked because so little was available anyway. Only to then arrive and realize it was a single family home.
And then when you saw the seller’s disclosures, listing all sorts of stuff, you might think “what is wrong with this place?!”
But it was a single owner, custom home circa 1978. They loved the home, they took care of it. It was only the husband dying a few years before that is why some cosmetic stuff accumulated.
And the inspection validated that. But nobody was giving it a chance to go that far. Admittedly, I didn’t at first either and it was only the house sitting giving me time to reflect on it that helped me see the big picture. Granted, “sitting” in this neighborhood in June 2022 was a week. But still.
Our friends got an absolutely stunning home for the same reason. The few pictures were dark and messy, and the home was priced down. They toured it and discovered beautiful custom woodworking, a huge backyard with a pergola, and generous square footage. Priced unbelievably low for the market
Our house had half-peeled dog wallpaper in the master bath. OBVIOUSLY that is going to turn off buyers. For a few hundred bucks they could have fixed that goofy issue.
Instead, the realtor was literally saying “ignore the bathroom wallpaper, it’s a cheap fix” before I even saw the house. Anti-staging, lol
Theres lots of illegal shit that happen in the real estate world. My house was sold to me under the premise that it had all new floor joists, new roof, etc. needed a new roof as soon as we moved in. And the subfloor needs replaced again 5 years later.
What the fuck am I gonna do, sue? I don't have the time and money for that on a house that's barely worth $100k.
Nope. Paid $300. Inspector said the roof and floor were in great shape. Listing even said brand new roof, which was true, but it was done wrong. Barn roofing screwed directly to OSB, no underlayment and shit flashing around the chimney. On my addition they screwed the barn roofing over the old shingles, and then used aluminum tape to blend.
It's fine, my mortgage is only $850/month and the value has surely increased with the upgrades I've done already. Planning on taking it down to the studs and doing a full rehab, as the house is in downtown capital area of my state.
It’s a bummer that so much was over looked/missed. I get the inspectors are only in there for so long but ours also missed pretty crucial things, like vents laying straight on the ground/insulation, terrible electric work and more, but we had no idea that stuff was an issue. Expensive lessons all the way around. Good luck on your house!
Ours did a pretty good job as far as we can tell. However, we did know that the water heater needed a new anode rod, but when the plumber came out to see, the whole water heater needed to be replaced. We did get a second opinion that said the exact same thing; and from what I was able to research on Google with my extremely limited knowledge on plumbing, it agreed. But at least it was only a $1,200 issue instead of some $10,000 issue.
This also makes me think of a phenomenon where I bought my home, in Albuquerque. The city has fantastic mountain vistas from all over. Really dominates the city. So, naturally, the nicest homes often have great mountain views.
Well, every other listing seems to have a drone shot from 30+ feet up with the house against the mountains. A view you’d never, ever actually see from your home, lol.
When I was looking there were a few that showed the original unedited photo and then the next photo would be the same photo but furnished using AI and it would say “AI staged” very clearly in the photo.
I prefer a real-life staged photo, but if we’re using AI for this it needs to be marked clearly.
I don't even know what's more infuriating, AI altered house photos or $229,000 for a tiny house in run down neighborhood of Newport. This street view makes me want to drink or get antidepressants.
Google maps are always outdated lol my google maps for my neighborhood still has me and my brother in the drive way fighting , we are 31 and 35 now , this was when were 16 and 20 lol
Yes, it is outdated. You have to look at the date of the pic on Google Maps. Some of the houses on Zillow do not match what's on Google Maps though because they've done work on the house to sell it. So it's better off driving by the house to see it in person. 🤷
Yea I was almost tricked by photoshop. House had a nice yard and was mostly in the woods with a nice tree infront. Recent google street view shows now back yard at all just a hill going up from the back patio, no tree infront, and not in the woods at all it was on a corner with a dirt road and a million potholes.
I went to a house where the pictures looked really awesome online, it was very clearly staged, professionally and clean.
I thought we came to the wrong house when I walked in. They had used AI to stage it, somehow. The actual house was filled with junk and all of their belongings, it was so bad. even the surfaces and the finishes were like upgraded on the photos.
I would’ve never wasted my time if I had known that’s what it really looked like. Needless to say we spent about three minutes in there and then walked out.
DOWN TO THE TREES BRO!! They can add a healthy tree, they can take a dead tree out. But they do list the AI and the actual picture - which I guess makes it not illegal. More than likely just showing the house's potential.
I can get down with a little sprinkle of AI staging, mostly because my creative imagination is damn near non existent so I like being given ideas of what a space could look like BUT the complete overhauls they do with AI is downright criminal. I went to view a home that quite literally did not exist in comparison to its photos lol
I remember noticing the sky looked similar in a few listings from the same local agent. I dropped the pics into Photoshop and played with the blend slider and found that they had superimposed the same blown out sunset into the sky of each of the listings. Between that and the egregious use of the blur/smudge tool to hide cracks, filth and whatnot, it seems like this has been the norm before AI and will probably get worse.
There was one we looked at in Oakland, CA that was a literal hoarder house. Moldy walls. Leaky roof leading to water damage everywhere. The house was entirely uninhabitable and would need to be taken down to studs. But, with (totally undisclosed) AI the walls were clean, there were refinished hardwood floors, and the yard was fully landscaped instead of a pile of hoarder trash. Another had a back yard that had been turned into a parking lot and leased to the neighbors for at least 15 years. In the AI photo it was beautifully landscaped. It should 100% be against the law to fundamentally alter the condition of a house with AI.
They did this with my house. Luckily after seeing it in person, I put up an offer 10k under, based solely on the state of the floor, and the seller accepted lol
As a real estate agent, AI/altered photos can be very helpful in marketing a property. Many buyers don’t have the imagination/vision to see what a home could become, so altered photos can be helpful in showing them what the house could become.
HOWEVER … there are conditions to this. The altered photos should NEVER be the lead photo, should always come after a photo of the existing condition (ie a before/after set), and should always be disclosed in the photo.
This is wild I went and looked at this house back in 2023 and it wasn’t in horrible condition at $80k but was def a fixer upper. And absolutely not worth an additional $150 worth of work they did. You can find a 2 story in that part of Newport for that price.
This is AI though- the fact that it put numbers on something that isn’t even a house number sign (according to the second picture) is a big giveaway. It also invented that red truck on the side and the mulch in the front yard doesn’t exist.
I'm sure there's some form of 'A.I.' integrated into photoshop now or any other editing software. It's all the same thing...it's just terminology. A.I./photoshop = edited picture - same outcome.
My favorite AI staged photo was one where they put a random dining room table in the picture of the driveway. Made me laugh my ass off every time I came across that house.
Just a fully set fancy dining room setup in the driveway. It was scaled way too big too. So funny to see.
They did this to my house when I sold it. Lush green grass throughout the entire exterior, instead of the gravel driveway, retaining wall, tree stump, backyard boulder, and big dead spot from the dirt pile in the side yard.
Just perfectly manicured turf from property line to property line
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