Anyone else fed up with estate agents' soft launches and AI photos?

[2longinthetooth]

Anyone else so fed up of estate agents doing 'soft' launches of houses. Throwing out a clip, no price, some dont even say location. Its so annoying, it doesnt draw me in, quite the opposite. You,d swear they are teasing the latest block buster. This isnt Hollywood, you aint speilberg, you are selling a 3 bed terrace, with an pink bathroom and wood chip wallpaper, give us the f*cking price and location. When did estate agents become amateur film makers. Stay in ur lane.

Dont get me started on AI pics, 1 house had the frontage looking like an entry for the chelsea flower show, with trees, flowers on the pavement 😂, drove by and the place was a shithole, tree wasnt even in the front garden, surely that is misrepresentation. These poor sellers, making their house look like something off grand designs and then when you view, the disappointment of the reality. How is that selling the place.

I've not seen it to the extreme you describe, but yes I've seen AI living rooms etc that bare little resemblance to the actual living room. The photo is marked with a disclaimer but I think it must be a bit disappointing for those who actually view the house, especially as AI can get the proportions all wrong and misled the buyer into seeing the room as bigger and than it actually is because the AI furniture is impossibly small.

They must be gaining the consent of the property owner to do an AI soft launch (never heard of or seen them before) so more fool them. It's a tough enough market as it is, without them making matters worst for themselves.

I saw some AI pictures on a listing recently, though "wow they've done a lovely job of that", then the next picture was the actual living room which clearly wouldn't have fitted the built in units the AI picture had.

Very misleading, and frankly timewasting for all involved.

I think it's a sign of the times @Chasingsquirrels people seem to be increasingly living in a manufactured, simulated digital world that's nothing like reality. And it's now seeping into the property business. Trouble is, people have to get real when it comes to actually buying and selling houses, they can't stay in their fantasy world for long.

I always think 'ah, there's someone who's paid lots of money for an AI package that they are desperately trying to find a use for.'

Happens in lots of places. I think everything will eventually calm down and it will stop.

Oh yes the ‘soft launch’. 3 bed house in AnyTown, with no pictures or price, and an invitation to view. Yes I’d love to waste my time seeing a house you’re not even providing a picture for.

The AI use seems to be heavily used by some estate agents. In some areas I haven’t seen any of them use it. After it’s a waste of time though, I end up flicking between the photos trying to work out the real ones. The misty glow and landscape paintings on the wall usually give me a clue.

Yet another argument for proper regulation of estate agents.

Yes, price and location are pretty important pieces of information. Surely by just putting 'DM for more information or to book a viewing', the EA just gets lots of timewasters who can't afford the house, or it's in the wrong location? I avoided the agents who make these types of posts on SM as it made me wonder if they'd be difficult to deal with if they can't be upfront about basic info.

The AI thing is annoying when the photos are all jumbled together in the listing. If they put all the actual photos together first and then had a second section which is clearly marked 'AI how this could look' after reno, that may be helpful for some people.

We’ve a local EA that does this with tiny slices of pics from the house in a circle. So you can’t see the actual rooms or sizes. It drives me insane. Another tactic is a video of split second shots of each room. If you contact them to enquire you are told it’s coming soon but you can’t see it unless you are under offer yourself.

I saw a rightmove listing today with the very first picture showing an outside shot of the house with a lovely side extension. Many pics later it was revealed there was no side extension, just a wasteland of garden.

@GoldTie I understand trying to sell a lemon of a house is hard but putting in the pics stuff that doesnt exist wont sell that house and in fact damages the rep of that estate agent. Honestly the 1 by me is hysterical, the property has been on with other agents. So there are historical pics. It was selling for a lower price then all of a sudden it disappeared and almost went through a property vortex, transforming into a beautiful flowery home with added tree for good measure, plus adding 15k to the price 😀. How it increased in price in the current climate is astonishing, maybe its to pay for the AI infusion or the non existent tree.

I hate this too. Another pet peeve of mine is ‘offers over’. I recognise that this is normal in Scotland, but it hasn’t been the norm in England until recently and it’s a terrible trend for buyers, I think. I’ve noticed that (where I live at least) the ones which are ‘offers over’ often fall through and are delisted and I wonder if this is because people over-offer and then decide against it.

@AnnesPuffedSleeves its just another way of trying to gain as much money as possible, its a bit like sealed bids. Its useful tho because it tells me the seller is not open or willing to negoiate lower than that price, so that property gets avoided. At the end of the day the market will decide if your house is worth the price offers over or not.

@2longinthetooth are you allowed to link it ?

It is annoying. Not least because my house has just gone back on the market (my buyer lost his job). The estate agent bought someone round who said "wow... I'd assumed the kitchen was AI but it actually looks like this." Now obviously it's nice they like the kitchen but it made me think the rise in AI means people don't trust listings, even when they actually show the truth.

And the soft launches annoy me too. One estate agent does this a lot locally. Some beautiful pictures on social media but no hint of how many bedrooms or the price. You have to call them or wait until it comes on right move and discover it's not big enough.

@HexInductionHour Id rather not but its on rightmove to view.

@2longinthetooth I am intrigued, could you post a link to one of these adverts please?

Yes I don’t mind ‘offers over’ just tells me what their hard line is. Everyone else I assume they’ll consider an offer.

What I’m not keen on is the headline price is eg £800k and appears in that bracket on rightmove. Then you read the text and they are giving a range of £800-£850k. So just put it in for £850k then!

@GoldTie why would anyone do that because people know the bottom line is 800k so thats what id offer. No one is going to say "oh go i,ll give you 20k more". They are trying to start a bidding war, yet wrong climate for it now. Id never enter a bidding war no house is worth it.

Yes I guess it’s an attempt at a bidding war, and also to draw people in on rightmove. All I get from it is they are hoping for around £830k. I find it so muddling I just don’t bother with it.