Realtor posts altered photos of houses up for sale: 'It just completely wasted our time'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 12, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Another day, another ethically questionable use for generative AI technology. 

Look, we all know that realtors and their photographers love to stretch the truth when it comes to selling homes. Sometimes the photographer will stand in a corner on their tippy toes and use a wide-angle lens, trying to make the place look as spacious as possible. When they want to show off a feature of a home, like a pool, they may purposely avoid photographing other parts, like a rusty shed right next door to the pool. The only true way to see if the house is the right place to call your home is to see if with your own eyes. 

One realtor has started a new way of marketing homes, though, and it's even more deceptive than just fancy photo editing. The realtor apparently posted both the AI-altered photos and the originals. Someone in the comments pointed out that this could be to show what the place looks like with furniture, which could be helpful to show the scale of the place. But this is defeated when the AI changes the dimensions of the actual room, and there's no way to know if the scale of this digitally placed furniture is even accurate. 

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  • Even if you support the use of AI to add in furniture to show off the potential uses of the place, I have to call you out on that. It has never been easier to Photoshop something – in fact, with the “stickers” button, you can quite literally do this in iMessage. 

    Regardless, many realtors have access to staging furniture for this very reason! You can make a house look warm and inviting to potential buyers without that much effort, and your clients will appreciate your ability to be up front about it. I don't know about you, but when I see places using clearly shopped photos on their site, I never buy from them. It means they either have something too hide, or they're too lazy to put in the effort to be a good salesperson, and either way, that company doesn't deserve your hard-earned cash.

  • Brown house surrounded by yellow and orange leaves, in foreground is wooden bench
    via Jonnelle Yankovich on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 'A local realtor has started posting AI altered houses for sale'

    Open my door and you will see million reasons to FALL for me! WELCOME
    via u/hashtagitslit

    This person added that "They posted two versions: the AI-altered listing and then the actual photos of the house in a completely different listing. It's frustrating that this is starting to become normalized!"

    These two are totally fabricated! See below for the actual photos…

  • Here's the actual home they're selling. It's a lot duller and less blurry than the above pictures

    Cheezburger Image 10562998528
    via u/hashtagitslit

  • Here again, two AI photos...

    召
    via u/hashtagitslit

  • It can be difficult to even tell which versions are real! These are the originals, and they honestly look really nice, not sure why that much editing was required

    Cheezburger Image 10562998784
    via u/hashtagitslit

  • Now we start to see actual problems: the doorframe changes sizes, and they're altering the window size, too

    BC NOP U Play
    via u/hashtagitslit

  • Here's what it actually looks like: again, no need to AI generate a photo that already looks perfectly fine

    Cheezburger Image 10563006464
    via u/hashtagitslit
  • They posted two versions: the Al altered listing and then the actual photos of the house in a completely different listing. It's frustrating that this is starting to become normalized!
    via u/hashtagitslit

  • Surely this can't be allowed, right?

    Competitive-Rent-476 i hate this too.. i wish we could report them because it's misleading
    via u/Competitive-Rent-476
  • hashtagitslit OP I'm not sure how realtor associations work but god do I hope they make some industry standards that prevent this from being common in the future
    via u/hashtagitslit
  • EdenCapwell How is this not considered some form of false advertising?
    via u/EdenCapwell
  • ToTheTop24 As a realtor I'll tell you this isn't just mildly infuriating, this is also unethical and misleading. This would be a violation of real estate law in most states. Al cannot be used to misrepresent a property or create features that don't exist.
    via u/ToTheTop24
  • Edit: This got a big response so just to clarify, virtual staging is allowed. That is different. Also to everyone messaging me, yes I can help you buy or sell a home in Southern California. If you are located elsewhere, I can refer you to a well rated realtor. I just have not had a chance to respond to everyone yet.
    via u/ToTheTop24
  • StalkingApache I remember the last time I was looking for a home how ped off I was getting. I'd see pictures of homes, we'd go to look and the home looked like dog sh compared to the pictures. It happened with 15 or so houses we went to look at.
    via u/StalkingApache
  • It completely wasted our time. At the time it wasn't Al, just professional photographers who were great at their job but it really was obnoxious. I don't think they should be able to edit pictures so much that the house looks completely different when you go see it.
    via u/StalkingApache

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real estate agent house buying a house realtor real estate new homebuyers selling
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