{"id":118465,"date":"2025-11-03T00:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/118465\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:10:08","slug":"landlords-are-using-ai-to-make-photos-of-nasty-apartments-look-clean-and-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/118465\/","title":{"rendered":"Landlords Are Using AI to Make Photos of Nasty Apartments Look Clean and Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real estate sites are filling<\/a> up<\/a> with glaringly AI-altered images that dress up run-down properties as being in much better shape than they actually are.<\/p>\n

Landlords are using AI to populate rooms with nonexistent furniture<\/a>, move walls around<\/a>, dream up imaginary facades, rooflines, and landscaping<\/a>, and brighten up rooms<\/a> that are in reality devoid of sunlight.<\/p>\n

Case in point, a Zillow listing<\/a> recently identified<\/a> by children\u2019s book illustrator DeAnn Wiley, recently interviewed by Slate<\/a>, shows an AI-yassified facade<\/a> of a rental property in Detroit, Michigan that\u2019s smoothed over to a comical degree. It was an astonishing makeover: rooms didn\u2019t show the grime the house had accumulated over the decades, thanks to an AI repainting the walls or refinishing floors.<\/p>\n

And as Wired reports<\/a>, some AI companies are taking the trend even further. One firm called AutoReel, founded by a former Facebook product manager named Alok Gupta, turns static images of properties into short video clips, selling renters or buyers on a reality that arguably doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

National Association of Realtors director of innovation strategy Dan Weisman told Wired that he observed a \u201chuge uptick in people\u201d using AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been at a few conferences over the past few weeks, and just anecdotally speaking, we\u2019ll ask out of 100 people in the audience how many are using AI, and I\u2019d say 80 to 90 percent of people raise their hand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started this two years ago, we kind of got a no from customers,\u201d Gupta added. \u201cIn 2024, they started saying \u2018tell us more.\u2019 And then this year, they\u2019ve been asking, \u2018How do I get started?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite rising concerns among people looking for housing that they\u2019re being sold on a fantasy, landlords and real estate professionals remain happy to cut costs with the help of AI.<\/p>\n

Gupta told Wired that people could save anywhere from \u201c$500 to $1,000\u201d by foregoing the need to hire a videographer. Others were even more blunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would I send my photos of an empty room to a virtual stager, have them spend four days and send it back to me at a charge of 500 bucks when I can just do it in ChatGPT for free in 45 seconds?\u201d American Real Estate Association founder Jason Haber told the publication.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, buyers are cursed with the task of distinguishing between an AI-rendered dream and a far messier reality.<\/p>\n

And experts recommend they keep their guard up for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bigger risk isn\u2019t full fabrication; it\u2019s subtle manipulation,\u201d real estate solutions company Cotality general manager Kevin Greene told Slate. \u201cTools that can brighten a photo can also remove power lines, add trees, or replace grass with a pool \u2014 and that\u2019s where things start to cross the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters most is whether that content reflects \u2018ground truth data,\u2019 which means the verified, factual attributes of a property drawn from public records, imagery, and on-site validation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

At best, buyers waste their time finding out for themselves that they\u2019ve been misled by AI imagery. At worst, in case they decide to buy a property sight unseen, Carnegie Mellon University associate professor Derek Leben told Slate that they could make a \u201ccase that they made that contract under misleading pretenses and for it to be null and void.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Wiley, the artist who spotted the yassified house on Zillow, the onus shouldn\u2019t fall on those looking for housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus shouldn\u2019t be on renters to have discernment but on these rental apps to regulate their platform so that users can avoid potential scams or manipulation during their search,\u201d she told Slate.<\/p>\n

More on AI real estate: This Listing for a Rental House Is Mangled With AI So Badly That You\u2019ll Cackle Out Loud<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real estate sites are filling up with glaringly AI-altered images that dress up run-down properties as being in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-118465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}