"At first, the idea of using AI to create real-estate-listing pictures seemed like a decent proposition to Kati Spaniak, an Illinois-based agent. Like anyone who works on commission, real-estate agents are under tremendous pressure to reduce overhead costs, and a tool that produces images of a furnished home-without an agent having to actually furnish it-could save thousands of dollars. More and more brokers seem to have the same idea: A recent survey of Realtors found that nearly 70 percent of the participants had used AI."
"Spaniak thought she had the ideal candidate for trying out the tech: a house in a suburb north of Chicago that had tremendous appeal on paper but looked terrible in photos when it was empty. "The house really needed quite a bit of work," she told me. So she ordered some "virtually staged" photos that used AI to add furniture, wall hangings, and stacks of coffee-table books."
"For homeseekers, the rise of the AI-assisted listing is not necessarily catastrophic. Fake imagery in home sales are like heavily edited photos on a dating profile-people are going to realize they've been fooled as soon as they walk in the door. And a level of manipulation has long been baked into real estate: wide-angle lenses to make spaces look bigger, aerosol sprays that smell like freshly baked cookies to suggest the presence of cozy homemakers, half-filled closets to imply a surplus of storage space."
AI virtual staging offers significant cost savings by digitally furnishing empty homes and reducing physical staging expenses. Many brokers are adopting AI tools, with a survey reporting nearly 70 percent of Realtors had used AI. An Illinois agent, Kati Spaniak, applied virtual staging to a suburban house that looked appealing on paper but photographed poorly when empty. After posting AI-enhanced photos, she observed visitors arriving disappointed and disoriented when touring the actual property. Homebuyers often recognize manipulated imagery once they enter a property, and real-estate sales depend heavily on emotional responses like FOMO and security.
Read at The Atlantic
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