I'm a buyer and went to see a property based on the MLS photos, which showed it secluded and nestled in a bunch of trees. When I got there, there was no such thing and the neighbor property was right against it, towering over it.

I went back and it's clear they (they being Coldwell Banker Residential / Annapolis MD) photoshopped the pictures to remove the adjacent home and add trees to the picture where there weren't any. I wasted over two hours travel based on their deception and I emailed the president of the office about their poor ethics and asked him to explain themselves?

He admitted the photoshop and replied essentially there was no ethical violation, that the agent said she was just making the picture "balanced."

My question is, is this routine in your industry? Is that office and agent wrong, or is this truly a standard practice to doctor pictures like that? (If so... wow.)

(The one on the left is an undoctored pic, and the one on the right is the main one they use in the listing. On the bigger size one you can see where they copied over the trees from the right to add to the left, and removed the other building... it's listing #AA6988123).

[img]http://i30.tinypic.com/358p2br.jpg[/img]

The Realtor code of ethics requires truth in all advertising. You could bring this up with the local board of Realtors and make an ethics complaint - it would be up to the Ethics board whether or not to act on that complaint, though.

I don't know as I've ever "embellished" a listing in this way, although I've used Photoshop to remove trash in the yard (like dead furniture at the curb). Only once though.

What this agent did needs to be reported, and hopefully his/her association will administer appropriate punishment. I hate hearing stories about agent hanky panky and never knowing the outcome.

Coldwell Banker Residential / Annapolis MD.

Very unethical practices condoned by the president of this company. Report it to their local board. You might be able to report this on their local board website.

This is why shopping for houses on the internet is not as effective as people think it is. You probably did not look at a house that might have been perfect just because the agent did not have a good camera and the pictures looked horrible. It happens all the time. Here, agents will take a picture of the ocean and include it as if the view came from the house and not down the street.

Find a local agent who you can trust so they can help you with items like this before you make the drive.

Oh, and file a complaint against the agent and the broker. This was definitely false advertising.

I for one, apologize to you for having a bax experience with a real estate agent. There is one agent in my area who I wouldn't be suprised if he was doing the same thing. I would follow pikes peak suggestion, call your local board of Realtors. Please follow up with this! Too many people decide not to pursue it once a bit of work is involved.

I don't know about the ethics part of it. It would seem though that a personal visit like you said would make it apparent that the photo was photoshopped. I think such tactics would only infuriate a potential buyer though (as it has you). My guess would be that agent, broker, and company will be forever soured in your mind, its just not good business. I would have atleast appoligized to you and sent you a gas card to make you feel like your time was valuable.

I have several clients out of state that have bought properties sight unseen then call me to sale it for them. They are generally shocked when they see my pics vs the pics they used to make their determination to "invest". False advertising, misrepresentation??? I don't know, that would be for the courts to decide. Luckily you took the time to go see the property prior to it getting out of hand.

I agree with Bigtoe, find a local agent you can trust. If I was your trusted agent I would have seen the house and sent you my pics to save you a trip. You seem peed off enough I would also say file a complaint with the Local Board.

A photo used in advertising should be an accurate representation of what a person would see at the given angle, which was not true in this instance. But it is a little odd that the agent even bothered to photoshop, because just taking the photo at a different angle would have been true and not shown the neighborhing house.

If this incident is eating away at you, you could send a bill to the broker for your time and gas, "cc" the local board of realtors and mention that you will be referring your friends elsewhere. I doubt the broker will pay your bill, but he or she might be embarassed that a doctored photo triggered a complaint to the board.

As a tip in the future, you could explore Google Earth to get an approximation of how close one structure is to another, although their photos tend to be a few years old and so are not entirely reliable.

I think the practice of photoshopping MLS photos is rare -- but who knows, maybe it happens more than I know.

I photoshop all of my photos, but not to change what's there...I'll fix the lighting of the photograph and if there's a stray leaf on the lawn that distracts from the house I might make it "disappear"...But I certainly don't get rid of trees or BUILDINGS...geez...

Believe it or not, one of the local agents here in FL actually PAINTED the house...in photoshop... it was unpainted concrete block...and he painted it... (and at the verrrrry end of his description he wrote "house color is approximate after painting". What a dink ...)

Better even than Google Earth are the photos now being displayed by Microsoft's "Bing," especially when the image source is "Pictometry."
This is also the company being used by CC of late. I am amazed at how good they are.

What that agent did is unethical and is false advertising. As a professional real estate photographer I have strict rule on what we will and will not change in a photo. In general, if it is not part of the sale (Trash, leaves, garden hose, clutter) we can remove it. We will not do any structure changes to the property including painting, fixing holes in walls or doors, etc. Nor will we remove fix objects outside the house, (Light poles, wires, the house next door, etc). New contruction may have a transparent green wash placed over the construction dirt, but it clearly is not grass.

I would take and obivious misrepresentation such as this directly to your States Real Estate Commissioner and file a written complaint. It is at best a bad mistake and at worst it is fraud. Any intentional misrepresentation of material facts is fraud, even if you easily discover the misrepresentation.

I'm shocked not only at the lack of ethics (which was blatant) but also at the sheer stupidity of that real estate agent. What were they thinking? The moment anyone sees the actual property, they'll know the listing agent deceived them, and they won't trust a single thing that realtor has to say from then on.

I interpret that as a sign of just how desperate the sellers' market is right now, that people are stooping to those lows just to get showings.

Best of luck finding a non-photoshopped house,

_________________________
Brian
Free Rental Application

Obviously, this agent was way off base. Generally, I find it OK to remove something that is not always present. That means trash cans and heavy shadows can be removed, but the neighbor's house cannot be removed or moved. When it comes to adding trees, there is just no excuse for that!