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Things I have seen that I consider falsely representing a home include homes that look much farther away from the road or other houses than they actually are. Floors, walls and other surfaces that appear pristine but are actually in poor condition.
Cracked driveways that look new online. Roofs, shutters and decks that look much better online than they do in person.
Stretched photos to make rooms look bigger, unnaturally vivid colors etc.
Pictures s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d so wide the microwave ovens look like they could zap an entire baseball bat, lengthwise.
Any time I see a microwave that is wider than it should be, it is a major turnoff. I know the house is not being represented correctly and that it will be less spacious than the picture shows.
Window scenes doctored to remove power lines, ugly sights, houses next door, etc.
Lawns "enhanced" to a vivid green.
Digital removal of adjacent or nearby structures, even entire water towers that are near the property. See the following outrageously doctored photo:
For editing, I do 3~4 main things. Color correction, light balancing, straightening lines (removing that fish-eye feel from wide angle lenses) and the only thing that really Changes much/the only real editing, is I stack images so you can see out windows (just a big blob of white otherwise, more visually appealing to see the green outside).
What you call "visually appealing" I call misrepresenting a real estate property. These photos are not intended to be entered into a photo contest nor to please the eye of the photographer, but should accurately show the property for sale.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian_M
At some point YOU have to actually go inspect the property.
No, buyers don't have the time to waste on a phony misrepresentation of a house. They need to spend their time wisely and only go see the houses that are likely to fit what they want.
Pictures s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d so wide the microwave ovens look like they could zap an entire baseball bat, lengthwise.
Any time I see a microwave that is wider than it should be, it is a major turnoff. I know the house is not being represented correctly and that it will be less spacious than the picture shows.
Window scenes doctored to remove power lines, ugly sights, houses next door, etc.
Lawns "enhanced" to a vivid green.
Digital removal of adjacent or nearby structures, even entire water towers that are near the property. See the following outrageously doctored photo:
Down the street from us is an enormous McMansion built on a tiny, weirdly-shaped triangular lot. The backyard is about 5 feet deep. The one side yard is maybe eight feet to the property line, and there are three large houses directly overlooking the property (like, there will be no place on the property where you are not looking directly into at least five large windows of neighboring houses). The lot in question is also lower than all the surrounding lots, so all the surrounding houses are higher than the McMansion in question.
The flyer describes this property as an "estate" and the photo replaces all the surrounding houses with sky and clouds, giving you the impression the house sits on a hill with large space between it and the next house.
Agree with previous posters saying that small-ish imperfections on walls, decks, roofs etc... just don't show up in photographs, at least not at the resolution which is displayed in most MLS listings. You would have to have a very hi-res photo to zoom in on & inspect to be able to see many of those types of imperfections, which are much more noticeable in person.
I am an agent and a photographer (35+ years of photo experience). I would NEVER digitally remove or add anything in a real estate shot that would misrepresent a property (power lines, landscaping, cracks in pavement, water towers)--even if I was asked by the agent to do so! I'm sure that there are some that do it, which is disturbing. I can't say I've run into it too much in my area.
Regarding scale & distortion, there is a fine line between wanting to show all of the features in a room and wrestling with the distortion that wide angle lenses can create when employed. I've seen complaints in this forum about 'photos that just show the corner of a room', but if you don't use the appropriate lens, that's what you get. There are things you can do to mitigate the distortion, but I've seen a lot of 'professional' photos where it was apparent that the person doing the shooting was unaware of the proper technique to do so.
RE photography is a low entry business, and many agents do their own photos, so sometimes you really have to be a sleuth to evaluate photos properly. I always give my clients a few tips on how to do that. Look at the scale of items that you KNOW the size of to figure out how big a room is. Google street view (which I know can be outdated but at least check it!). But alas, if some are going to just fake it, there's not much that can be done I guess...
I don't think every flaw needs to be shown... -this isn't a medicine ad where we need to rattle off every possible side effect of the drug we're trying to encourage you to take! But --- If there are major defects that will prevent financing, or prevent the property from being a good prospect for first-time buyers who don't own a hammer yet... then if possible those defects should be shown. Or at least mentioned in the agent remarks so we know before we book such clients to go see it.
I try to tell clients that banks are not underpricing homes for no reason these days... if there's a foreclosure that looks nice in the three included photographs, but it's $40,000 under typical list price for the area... there's probably something very wrong with it! But they still sometimes send me these listings, hoping for a good deal even though they need FHA or USDA financing and it's never going to fly.
If there's a huge gaping hole in the roof... or the floor... any surface really... listing agents really should show that.
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)--even if I was asked by the agent to do so! I'm sure that there are some that do it, which is disturbing. I can't say I've run into it too much in my area.
