Estate agent AI photographs.

Sailbad

Looked at a flat for sale and took some photos. The comparison between the estate agents website photos and mine was striking. Small print says some photos may be "staged" to show what the rooms might look like with furniture and different lighting conditions, but this was something quite different. The corner of the bathroom beside the toilet had obvious sign of water damage, gap between warped skirting and wall. Estate agents photo looked fine of course.

Is this sort of thing common practise and is it legal honest and truthful?

Woodstok2000

Photoshop has been around for years, so it's not (necessarily) AI, although that has brought previously advanced skills to the masses!

Could have been worse, they could have just painted over it and you'd never know until the issue reappeared later.

Chief_of_Staffy

It's probably legal but it's not truthful. I've seen a few of those ads with AI makeovers; they might as well just take photos of a different house. It started with the badly photoshopped skies and now it's everything in the photo.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6684862/estate-agent-ai-photographs

Anyone with a basic understanding of photography will know how to take photos to make a room look bigger. When margins were higher people used to hire photographers with specialist lenses that give the large room look without distorting the image but now everyone is a photographer with their phone and margins are tighter most just snap a few pictures and accept the slightly jarring feeling.

Even in the 90s, when selling my mothers home, the estate agent asked for old photos of the property so the exterior photos were at the height of summer so the garden in full bloom rather than the mid winter reality of when the property went on the market with all the trees bare and most of the borders under snow.

I think it would be unusual to photoshop out a stain or such, though easy to do even without AI, but more commonly they just put a piece of furniture in the way so the stain cant be seen. Similarly if its a recent thing, they can use an older photo… our neighbours property was sold in spring, has been refurbished and is now being advertised to let but using the old sales photos - which is odd given they've taken 5 months doing it up.

At the end of the day the photos will show the property in the best light, its for you to check it out properly before buying it, and most sensibly to also get a surveyor to check it out for things you may have missed but again they cant go hefting furniture about etc to see if there are problems behind wardrobes etc.

HouseHuntingAmy

There is a line between presentation and concealment, and removing water damage crosses it. Virtual staging, twilight skies and suspiciously wide angles are the grey zone everyone tolerates, but editing out a defect that would affect a buyers decision is a different thing - agents have material-information obligations precisely so that things like visible damp are not quietly airbrushed. If you are minded to, it is worth reporting: the agent will belong to a redress scheme (the name is in the footer of their website or on the listing paperwork), and your timestamped viewing photos next to their listing photos are exactly the evidence that makes a complaint land. From the buyer side, your instinct to photograph everything is the right one and more people should do it - I take photos of every dodgy corner at viewings now, because the listing set is marketing, not record, and memory is kind to houses. The real safety net stays the survey though: a warped skirting gap and staining beside a toilet is exactly the sort of thing a decent surveyor pokes at, and water damage in a bathroom corner can mean a slow leak, which is a very different cost to a stain. Did you end up offering on the flat or walking away?

Sailbad

Thanks for replies, everyone. I confronted the agent and she admitted that the phpto was faked blaming rouge AI.

The photo on their website has now been replaced with the original unenhanced photo showing the damage.

Still undecided about buying.

MorningcoffeeIV

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82153369#Comment_82153369

Rouge is the worst colour of all the AIs.

Chief_of_Staffy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82153382#Comment_82153382

I think Rouge AI is AI used by clowns.

FreeBear

Blame it on the computer - An all too familiar cop out. Someone would have had to look at the images before generating the listing…. Sloppy oversight on the part of the EA would be my conclusion.

WIAWSNB

Sil had to list a probate property in need of considerable updating recently, and after little interest, the EA said they'd add AI enhancements to show what it 'could' look like.

I guffawed when I first saw the 'misleading' results, but then became impressed as I could see the decor design was surprisingly effective and easy to achieve, and I'd be tempted to follow much of it if I had interest in the place.

It's a double-edged sword, tho', as folk even half-expecting that appearance on their visit would be bitterly, and cynically, disappointed.

An honest and genuinely helpful approach would be to show both?

Skiddaw1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82153994#Comment_82153994

😁

Absolutely. When we were trying to sell previous house (the first time when the sale fell through) the EA's photographer did exactly that with the third bedroom. It looked utterly ridiculous in the Rightmove blurb. We used a different EA the next time.