AI promises renters dream homes that don’t exist
▼ Summary
– A New Yorker named Joyce found that an AI-enhanced listing made a small, rundown apartment appear spacious and renovated, with features like a fireplace that didn’t exist.
– AI tools let brokers cheaply stage photos with modern furniture, but some agents, like Bee in Florida, use them to show renovation potential rather than to mislead.
– Joyce and other renters, like Madison in Queens, report a surge of AI-enhanced listings on sites like StreetEasy, often identifiable by excessive potted plants or generic descriptions.
– New York and California have laws requiring disclosure of AI alterations in real estate ads, though regulations vary by state and often focus on performers, not furniture.
– Joyce noted that listing descriptions also seem AI-generated, with repeated phrases like “charming” and “spa-like finishes,” which she said gives dishonest brokers a powerful tool.
A native New Yorker named Joyce knew that finding her first solo apartment in Manhattan would be challenging, but she never anticipated it would be “hell.” After enduring a stream of tiny, overpriced units she bluntly called “shitholes,” she finally spotted what seemed like a dream: a reasonably priced studio that appeared spacious, airy, and featured a fireplace. The kitchen looked recently renovated and well equipped. She dropped everything to see it, only to discover upon arrival that five other women her age had viewings scheduled after hers. “I get in, and it’s not the same apartment at all,” she told me. The space was far smaller than the photos suggested. The kitchen sink was different, the stove was missing several knobs, and there was no fireplace. “There’s the idea of the apartment that we saw in the pictures,” she said, and then there was the apartment itself. Her friend pointed out a telltale sign: “There was a plant on the gas stove in the picture. We should’ve known it was AI.”
New York City brokers have long possessed a talent for making even the most rundown apartments look passable in photos, but generative AI has handed them a tool to do so instantly. For renters, this means spending even more time scrutinizing every listing to avoid ending up in an apartment that looks far better online than it does in person. Virtual staging is not new, but AI is. Bee, a Realtor in Florida who asked that her last name be withheld for privacy, explained that virtual staging often helps people envision how they could refurnish or remodel a home. “You’d be surprised how little creativity a buyer or renter has,” she said. “Virtual staging could be anywhere from $40 to $400 based on what you’re having these stagers do, whereas real-life staging can’t be done for under a couple grand.”
She showed me a photo from one of her active listings, a house with furniture she called “dated.” The living room featured plush sofas, an ornate wood coffee table, a Persian-style rug, and heavy drapery. Then she shared the version she redecorated with ChatGPT: a white sofa, track lighting, and a plain, woven rug that looked decidedly modern. She said the edited photo isn’t going on the listing, but she does share it with clients to demonstrate how they could update the space.
Real estate agents and brokers have several virtual staging tools at their disposal. Bee’s favorites are Stuccco and BoxBrownie, both of which charge per listing. But Bee noted a clear difference between using virtual staging software to show what a house could look like with new furniture and a few DIY upgrades, and using AI tools to create misleading listings. “There’s a lawsuit waiting to happen,” she said. “I think ‘digitally altered’ is not accurate. I don’t necessarily put ‘digitally altered’ if I have AI make a bed, but ‘digitally altered,’ to me, says, ‘I patched a hole.'”
Madison, a Queens resident, said she wanted to get a head start on apartment hunting before her lease ends in the fall. In her six years living in New York, she has found apartments through Facebook groups and once via a post on the queer dating and classifieds app Lex. This time, she has been searching on StreetEasy, where she has noticed a proliferation of AI-enhanced listings. Joyce, who spent months looking, observed that these listings often feature a proliferation of potted plants. “I think scammy or misleading pictures for apartments have existed for as long as internet listings for apartments have, but it’s really egregious now,” she said. Whereas pre-AI real estate scams included photos of totally different apartments, “now I’m looking at a picture of a room that more or less looks real until you start looking at the details of the furniture and things like that, where they clearly took a picture of the actual room and said, ‘Hey, ChatGPT, can you put some furniture in this for me?'”
Some states are starting to crack down on AI-enhanced listings. New York recently implemented a law mandating disclosure of AI in ads, but the legislation mostly focuses on “synthetic performers,” not on AI-generated furniture. However, the New York secretary of state issued a warning last year about misleading AI-generated or AI-enhanced listings, noting that brokers are already prohibited from posting dishonest advertisements. California’s Altered Image Law goes a step further, requiring anyone advertising property to disclose when they have used AI to alter or enhance images. But much like broker and Realtor regulations, laws governing the use of AI in listings vary from state to state.
Joyce, who eventually found an apartment after several months of searching, said even the descriptions appear to be AI-generated. “Everything is ‘charming.’ Everything is ‘cozy.’ You notice the same wording patterns over and over again, where everything has ‘spa-like finishes,'” she said. “Brokers are already so dishonest, and now they have, like, the lying machine in their pocket.”
(Source: The Verge)
