Housefishing
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What is housefishing and how does it relate to real estate?
the last show with David Cooper, where we utilize nonlinear reverse inverse backward thinking protocols. It sounds like this.
We've all been catfished before. Okay, maybe not all of us, but catfishing is when, for online dating, the person you meet's photos don't quite match the reality of how they look. Well, now the housing market has its own version. AI photos can magically fix stains in listings, clutter, even ugly power lines. It's called house fishing, and we're here to discuss it with someone who's recently written about it in Business Insider, where he is a real estate reporter, and his name is Jordan Pandy. Jordan, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, David. It's such a great term, house fishing.
When did housefishing start becoming a concern for homebuyers?
When did we start noticing this happening? I mean, AI photo generation, AI photo tweaking, AI staging in real estate kind of just came out of nowhere. It just kind of creeped up on us in the last few years.
Yeah, I think you could say that about a lot of AI usage and people's day to day. It kind of just happened. Staging has happened for a very long time. Started out with people renting furniture to put into a home. Then it became virtual staging that you could do in Photoshop. But now anybody can do it at their fingertips. There's some good, there's some bad, just like anything.
How are AI tools changing real estate photo listings?
But yeah, it is kind of just popped up out of nowhere.
I remember seeing like listings for buildings 10, 15 years ago, the condo developer would do a rendering and it's like, there's no way the building's going to look like that. It's ignoring the ugly building next door. But now that tool is in anyone's hands. How often are people using AI to touch up real estate listing photos that you're seeing out there?
I would say more and more as the days go on. I spoke with a real estate agent in Virginia who said that about 30 to 40 percent of the listings she sees have used some sort of AI with the photos. It kind of happens all the time if you can see it. And it's getting a little bit more egregious in some certain situations, but it's kind of always been there.
Well, we got to dig into the egregious examples.
What are some examples of egregious housefishing practices?
I mean, house fishing sounds so dramatic. What kinds of things are being changed? I imagine some are little. They don't seem that unethical or dishonest. And then I imagine some are just completely outrageous.
Right. I think all of the real estate professionals I spoke with are kind of in the same boat. Little things... Changing the paint color, changing the furniture in the home is somewhat okay. But when you start to get to structural changes in the home, that's where it becomes a problem.
How do homebuyers react when they experience housefishing?
Putting a window not where a window is, putting a fireplace where a fireplace is not supposed to be. Things that a contractor would have to do once you buy the home is kind of like the line that should not be crossed.
We've all seen it like in the last, I don't know, 20, 30 years since listings went online. Tricks like using a wide angle lens or cleaning up a little bit more than the tenant in there has cleaned up or maybe some rented furniture. I'm sure real estate agents would say this is just like that. This is just us spoof. What am I spiffing up a listing? That's the word I'm looking for. But at what point do we go from like good marketing to digital deception? Where is the line?
What regulations exist to combat housefishing in real estate?
Yeah, there's a line between showing the potential of a home versus completely changing the idea of the home. That's where it gets a little bit tricky. Again, when it comes to small things like maybe even fixing a scratch on a wall, fixing up scratches on the floor, but removing a power line that would obstruct the view from the second floor bedroom. That is something that It's a little bit disappointing. I spoke with a few different agents and they said it's a pretty big letdown when you bring your client to a home and it looks nothing like the pictures. I mean, that's just a waste of time. People have jobs. They have to take time off to go see this. So anything that would require a lot of work is kind of crossing the line.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is housefishing and how does it relate to real estate?
0:03–0:58
2
When did housefishing start becoming a concern for homebuyers?
0:58–1:34
3
How are AI tools changing real estate photo listings?
1:34–2:22
4
What are some examples of egregious housefishing practices?
2:22–2:52
5
How do homebuyers react when they experience housefishing?
2:52–3:31
6
What regulations exist to combat housefishing in real estate?
3:31–4:13
7
What are the ethical implications of using AI in real estate listings?
4:13–4:47
8
How can buyers protect themselves from being housefished?
4:47–9:17
Speakers
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