If any of you are considering a move, please be aware that the images you see on realtors’ websites may bear only a slight resemblance to the lived experience.
Yesterday I wanted to compare the way my apartment looks now to the way it looked when I bought it, so I asked my realtor for the photographs that had been used in the real estate listing.
After I received them I was surprised to realize how different those images were from the actual spaces in my apartment. They had used fish-eye lenses and “virtual staging” of furnishings which combined to create a very attractive fiction. When I was taking photos for comparison today, I stood back as far as I could with my iPhone but could not recreate the depth of the realtor’s photos.
Here is the living room and dining area. A large table would fit in this space only if there were no chairs on the right of the fireplace.
The realtor’s picture of the main bedroom shows a greatly exaggerated situation. The bed in their virtual staging can be only about 3 ft long. My bed, by comparison, is queen size. The space beside the window, though, is larger than the realtor’s image suggests; it provides enough room for my painting table and easel.
The second bedroom shows an even greater contrast between the realtor’s image and my own. In fact, what they have virtually staged could not be staged in real life. The window wall is not wide enough for anything larger than a twin bed. It is also where the baseboard heater is placed, so putting a bed there would block the only source of heat in the room. The walls on either side of the window are at an angle, making the placement of bedside tables awkward.
As it turned out, I didn’t feel I could use their photos as comparisons, but I did get a valuable lesson in image manipulation.
Snowbird of Paradise 
@snowbirdofparadise.com Wow this is a really interesting comparison! Whatever lens they used changes the shape of the rooms so much, I feel like there should be a rule against that!
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I agree. It could almost be false advertising.
Just wrong on so many levels!
I was most annoyed by the way they doubled the size of the window in the second bedroom.
Wow, your pictures are illuminating! Some of the virtual staging is just ridiculous. I do like your arrangements. The easel placement is so lovely.
Thanks, Lorna. The easel enjoys a lot of light there.
Oh my gosh! This is so good to know, and it really is false advertising with such deceptive images. It might be one thing if everyone could see it for themselves, but we had a housing boom a few years back where people, especially those moving from out-of-state, were buying houses sight unseen because everything was selling so quickly.
Oh you are so right. I wonder how many people bought homes based on manipulated images.