Real estate agents use the power of AI to command plumbing, layout to disappear "Deceptively spacious." "Prime location." "Up-and-coming area." "Some original features," which occasionally turn out to be asbestos. Estate agents are known for sometimes stretching the truth in pursuit of a sale, but the generative AI boom appears to have thrown things into overdrive – providing an easy way to present images …
"I'd think El Reg was more at risk for republishing pictures than they are for the originals."
Unlikely. There are, unsurprisingly, strong protections in place for investigative journalism in the case of fair use of images that show, if not a crime, then certainly unscrupulous behaviour that needs to be more widely known.
On the other hand, using misleading images when selling property in the UK would be a bold strategy.
This sort of thing is only going to make the "AI" bubble burst, as more and more people realise how potentially dangerous this automatically generated bullshit is.
Plausible? Yes, until you look closely.
Accurate, true? No, not really: it's imaginary.
The "AI" imaginary images should have a content warning, by law.
I suspect the AI is not aimed at the house buyers. But at the sellers. You're likely to attract more buyers to viewings, with nice pictures. Who'll then leave, disappointed - but you can tell the seller you've got them a load of viewings quickly.
As a bonus, when none of those viewers put in an offer (or one does at a much lower price) you can then tell the seller that you're working really hard to sell their property - but that the price is probably a bit too high for the market, and it would be worth reducing it. Even though you were the ones that lied to them about how much they could get in the first place, telling them it would sell for more in order to get them to put it on the market with you, rather than some other estate agent.
I had this happen once, when I was invited to see a 2 bed flat that was new on the market today, and did I want to see it before it went online and all the literature was published. Opportunity to get it before the competition. It was on my way home from work, so why not. Turns out it was a no bedroom flat. Hence they clearly wanted lots of viewings to please I suspect a new client, who was probably a crap landlord converting all his 3 bed terraces into 2 flats. He'd converted the loft, but not to planning requirements so it would be illegal to even describe it as a room. And converted one of the bedrooms into a kitchen / diner / sitting room - that basically had room for one armchar or one small table. Oh and with the bathroom directly off the kitchen, so also illegal. Plus the original master bedroom which was the only valid room in the place. The only people in the market to buy it would be slum landlords, and they knew I was buying for myself - so clearly they only wanted me there to impress the seller - the agent was quite pissed off when I pointed out he'd lied to me and that this was actually a no bedroom flat. And I bet his literature wouldn't call it a 2 bed one, because we both knew that was illegal. I'm sure he knew it wouldn't sell to me, and I'd already viewed a couple of other properties with them.
"so it would be illegal" and "so also illegal" and "we both knew that was illegal".
There are no doubt some jurisdictions on this planet where all of those are true. There are also jurisdictions where none of those are illegal. And undoubtedly, there are jurisdictions where only one or two of those things are illegal.
There may even be jurisdictions where all of them are necessary to receive a permit to inhabit ...
My point being, without mentioning your jurisdiction, such testimonials are next to useless.
jake,
Was the UK (specifically England). Under the old law on description of property, so you couldn't use certain terminology. For example, a loft conversion that didn't have planning perimission was not allowed to be described as a room. You could say the house had a loft conversion with pictures to show how lovely it was, but you couldn't call it a room - so a house with 2 bedrooms and a converted loft that hadn't been done properly could only be called a 2 bed house.
I'd forgotten that the two doors between kitchen and bathroom was changed some years ago, but I don't know when. So I may have been wrong about that at the time - although the estate agent didn't say that in his defence.
As it happens, this loft conversion had been done terribly, with the stairs in the wrong place, so they came up though the middle of the room, meaninig you couldn't use the space properly anyway. It also didn't have a fire door, which at least used to be a requirement (and I suspect still is).
As the article says, the old legislation has been repealed, and it rolled into general consumer legislation, so I don't know exactly what's allowed. Although I've had to use some of the new consumer legislation (in order to get money back for a couple of friends who'd been ripped off) and the bits on distance selling and getting builders in had been toughened up on previous legislation, so I'd suspect the estate agents are still not allowed to directly lie on adverts (but I've never read anything about it).
"it's always surprising to me how few people actually have a 'proper' survey which is often a miniscule percentage of the agreed sale price"
It's 5 years since we bought our house, and admittedly things may have changed thanks to Covid and the great interest rate hikes that followed, but if we had told the seller we wanted to do a "proper" survey, we never would have got the property.
There were so many people looking for houses at that time, that it was just by luck we got talking to some people who where there at the time, who turned out to be the owners, and they took a liking to us. They basically said if we put in a reasonable bid, the house was ours.
Ask for a Survey, and they would have just moved to the next person, who was happy to take it. It's shit, but that's where things were at that time, it was a seller's market. If you didnt have the money available immmediately, and ready to sign on the dotted line. Kiss good bye to getting the house.
Whether that's still the case, I dont know, but considering how many people are still looking for a home, I certainly wouldnt doubt it...
I have lived in my present house for 15 years, but when I sold my last house, I got a full independent survey from the local very well respected firm and stuck it in a clear plastic folder next to the front door so that anyone who viewed could look at it.
We went to the effort partly so that we could fix anything before the house went on the market - there were no issues.
The first person who viewed, offered over the asking price, partly because we had gone to the effort for them. We spoke to them afterwards, and they said that the Estate Agent, who had been told that the survey was inside the door and been given a copy, never mentioned it to them - they had just been observant.
In my current house I have lifted all the downstairs floorboards and used a membrane, insulation, membrane layering before replacing the boards - toasty warm. But, I took photographs of the progress in each room, so that it can be proved when the Energy Rating is calculated and so that photographs can be displayed when we do sell the house.
Putting a little effort does bear dividends in my experience.
I didn't bother with a survey last time I bought a house, or the time before for that matter. I've found that with surveys they come up with crap like "inaccessible so no information" in places where with a little common sense you could work it out.
Worse are EPCs. Completely unreliable. "Cavity walls" where the layout of the bricks and the thickness of the wall clearly indicate a solid brick wall. "Inaccessible light fittings" when they just can't be arsed looking. And so on.
All you need is common sense and experience of how houses are built. If you don't have this, ask someone who does. Yes, that might be a surveyor but don't rely on it.
And those who know the least about houses tend to be estate agents.
Not to mention that the electrics "should have an inspection by a qualified person", and the gas "should be inspected by a qualified person", and all the other "here's a disclaimer so you can't sue me about anything whatsoever" clauses I've seen in so called surveys.
When we bought our current house, I knew enough about the building standards of the day (ex council house, built when they built them properly) that I wasn't worried about anything - apart from all the things I could see for myself, but all things I can fix for myself too. But I got a local builder to give it a once over as well.
garden apartment = basement flat with no light & pot plant near front door
penthouse = attic flat
executive penthouse = attic flat with high fees
sought after area = criminals love it
up and coming area = slum
gentrified = inner city slum
favoured south/north/east/west side = other side is better
renovator's delight = wreck
ripe for redevelopment = wreck without a roof
prime development site = toxic waste ground
well located = middle of nowhere
street parking = no parking
allocated parking = free for all
For sales involving such huge amounts of money it's amazing how little care the agents take. House listings where the number of bedrooms varies in different places. Floor plans with missing doors - sometimes showing rooms with no entrance! Photos which contradict the floor plans.
Oh, and every single house is in a popular or sought-after area.
I was looking at the details for a property, no real intention to buy but more surveying the market. I was slightly suspicious of the lack of external images, just one quite tight shot of the front.
A quick search on Google StreetView showed that the adjoining building was a funeral director's, with a yard at the back where the hearses and cars were parked, of course there was no mention of this in any of the descriptions.
Estate agents don't need AI!
We live next to a cemetery - the neighbours are dead quiet, even on 31st Nov. Our road is a cul de sac as well, we're at the dead end of it.
One day I mentioned to Mrs AC that we were getting new neighbours. She commented that she'd not seen any property boards up in the street - it was a while before she realised the digger was in next door preparing a new plot !
Google street view and satellite images are hugely useful when buying a house. One place I looked at was very good value, then I looked at the satellite image. Called estate agent - "there looks to be a open sewage treatment plant right next door", reply was "oh yes, but you can't see it".
I went to view a bungalow near Welshpool with an eye to renting it after I was forced out of my home of 35 years. The bungalow was delightful, nicely situated in a small village some 10 miles from the town, and had extensive grounds and a small orchard. Immediately I walked into the building, I was struck (literally) by the all pervading stench of Kerosene, the central heating boiler was located in the corner of the open plan kitchen/diner, and the whole house stank, although the agency had somehow failed to mention this.
While I was being shown round by the agent, another couple turned up and went to sit in the living room to wait their turn.
After I returned to the place I was staying (my Brother-in-law's smallholding about 30 miles away) in order to think about it, I looked at it again on the agent's website and noticed that it was marked as "Let Agreed". I presume that that second couple had taken it, despite what I considered to be an impossible problem to living there.
I was selling a small one bed place, and had an interested buyer who wanted to get a survey. I wasn't there for the survey, and surprised at the list of demands that the prospective owner made after reading it. The surveyor had clearly used a boilerplate response and taken less than 5 minutes to fill it in. "No ventilation in the bathroom" - open the window. "No door on the kitchen" - physically impossible because of the location of the stairs. "No boiler certificate" - this was especially hilarious. The house has no gas, just an immersion heater for water, and night storage heaters. We told the purchaser that there was nothing much we could do to fix these imaginary problems.
They've been removed from the linked-to site too, where the promised tree-wall is nowhere to be found. I expect they have been expunged from existence.
My wife's in the industry, agents can get a bit funny about their photos. I imagine that goes double when they're embarrassing...
Some weeks after the disappointment I referred to above, another property popped up on the web. I drove over to have a look at it and was duly impressed. There were some problems that needed attention, but on the whole, it suited my purpose. I phoned the agents and asked to be given a viewing, but they couldn't arrange one for a couple of days. On the appointed day I drove over early and spent about two hours poking my nose into every nook and cranny on the outside, making copious notes of the faults (eg asbestos soffits, rotten garage door jambs, time expired central heating boiler (but this one was in the garage, not the house), etc. As the agent drove down the driveway and stopped, he opened his car door and I said "I'll take it". He replied "But you haven't seen inside yet" to which I replied "I don't really need to go inside, I can see what I need through the windows." I have lived here for over 8 years now, and most of the problems have been solved, but I am still waiting for the new carpet I was promised on day one.
That's kind of one of the problems... everyone I talk to is not willing to go file a complaint so these people get a stiff slap on the wrist or maybe even a stern finger-wagging.
And that's the rest of the problem is it's really hard to find and complain to the proper oversight agency, and they do nothing anyway.
(I wonder why the US calls them "real estate agents" - maybe because in the US an "estate agent" is someone that winds up the estate of someone that's died... e.g. executes the will per the lawyer and sells their stuff at auction if necessary and land is called "real estate")
> I wonder why the US calls them "real estate agents" - maybe because in the US an "estate agent" is someone that winds up the estate of someone that's died... e.g. executes the will .... and land is called "real estate"
No. Selling the dead person's clothes is an executor.
Estate: look, some places spell "color" with an added "u". Some places spell "estate" (land and buildings) with and added "real". There is a commercial estate-agent association which has harped the "real" into a made-up word and thus a registered trademark: "Realtor". We all talk different.
"Dropping a few tasteful virtual Chippendales into a property is one thing..."
According to Wikipedia, "Chippendales is a touring dance troupe best known for its male striptease performances". Well, I suppose some people might like that sort of thing in their living room, but it's really not for me.
Oh, was it antique furniture that was being referred to? Ok, that makes more sense.
This AI thing is just a flash in the pan, it'll blow over before too long.
Remember how Virtual Reality was going to revolutionize the real estate industry? The fad lasted maybe a month, two in some places. Turns out that buyers don't want to look at pretty, computer "adjusted" images. The actually want to physically look at the place before plonking down perfectly good coin on it. No number of computerized tricks will ever replace boots on the ground.
