Why overly editing photos can hurt your sale

With AI and other editing software, creating a virtual staging image of a home for an online listing can be achieved with just a few clicks.

While you can easily generate perfectly staged images, it is essential not to catfish your potential buyers.

“It's just like if you think about dating… you see someone on a dating site and they show you a picture, and then you get there and it doesn't really look like them… you've already started this off on the wrong foot,” said Kristine Thomas, a New York City-based photographer.

Retouching something like the color of the sky won't significantly impact the sale of the home. After all, you aren't selling the sky. However, editing something major, such as a wall or window, could raise ethical concerns and erode trust with buyers.

“If there's damage or if the roof isn't good… you can shoot a house and then fix the roof. If it doesn't have a good-looking roof, when the potential buyer comes there, you're potentially losing a whole client," Thomas said.

Hiding damage, concealing important features like fire hydrants, or attempting to deceive the size of a room will create distrust among buyers. Photos should not be too far off from reality. With virtual staging software, AI and designers, it's very possible to edit things in and out of photos.

• Do add a blue sky on a cloudy day
• Do add furniture to an empty space
• Do remove old furniture and replace with virtual staging
• Do adjust lighting in rooms
• Do add water in a pool
• Do disclose when photos have been virtually staged

• Don't cover up damaged walls, roofs or floors
• Don't change the dimensions of the room or make it look bigger than it really is
• Don't edit in features that don't actually exists
• Don't change window sizes or locations
• Don't hide important details, such as electrical wires or fire hydrants.
• Don't add furniture that is smaller than it is in real life. Keep it to scale.

Labeling edited content is important for transparency. Many professionals do basic retouching of photos to balance color and light. However, if you are adding or removing items, you should disclose this. If you are using a virtual staging service, request that a watermark be added to the images. Most systems will have this feature built in.

"One of the biggest things with virtual staging is making sure the photos are labeled so no one thinks the furniture is real," said Alex Tilici, founder of VirtualStaging.com, which edits real estate photos with furniture. "Most MLS platforms won’t let you upload photos unless they’re properly labeled, so agents usually follow that."

If you need to add a watermark or captions yourself, put some text in the right corner or caption it with text "this image was virtually staged."

Even with proper labeling, relying on just virtual staging or retouching can be jarring for buyers when they see the property in person.

“It's really important for people to not rely so heavily on retouching, because as much as you think people can't tell, people can tell,” Thomas said.

Thomas said she has seen AI and virtual staging being used to add furniture in a home that's completely empty which is what Tilici's company focuses on. The advantage of this is that it allows the buyers to envision what the space would look like with furniture.

Even without editing, there are ways to take photos of a room at a specific angle or with a certain lens to make it appear larger. Thomas warns photographers not to be misleading.

“I could conceivably shoot like a small bathroom to make it look twice as much as it is, but I try to be very cautious with that because… you want potential buyers to trust you,” she said.