Achi news desk-
A Toronto real estate listing with stunning renderings generated by artificial intelligence has raised questions about the limits of digital photo manipulation.
“I’ve been looking for a property for quite some time and I thought that was a nice place,” said Josh Kelldonk, a software developer living in Alberta who uses Realtor.ca as he plans to move to Toronto. “Then a second picture hits you in the face, and it’s just a dirty garage at the end of the day.”
The building for sale at 194R Chatham Ave in Toronto is a 46 by 40 foot single story brick garage on an alley between Chatham and Danforth avenues, just off the parking lot for Trull Funeral Home and Cremation Center.
There were 21 photos in the original listing (asking price $588,000): six show the actual building in its current state of bare brick and wood under peeling paint, and 15 show elaborate AI-generated renderings.
The AI images of the Chatham garage are a mix: some depict the nearly windowless garage with its dirty concrete floors polished to a high gloss and laid out as a large one-bedroom loft with large windows. Some images invent new spaces – pushing the walls out to create niches for furniture – others replace wooden beams with steel beams and frankly, a ridiculous amount of ductwork.
194R Chatham Ave in Toronto is a 46 by 40 foot single story brick garage.Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd.
One of 15 intricate AI renderings that imagine what space might look like.Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd.
“It has all the problems that all AI-generated images have. And the mistakes are subtle; areas in those photos where the interior dimensions of the building are completely wrong,” said Mr. Kelldonk, who filed a complaint with industry regulator the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) about what he calls misleading images. “The root of my complaint: it’s completely divorced from reality.”
The images take the trend of virtual staging – where furniture and computer settings are added to real estate photos of empty rooms – to a new level.
“When it came to Chatham, I knew people wouldn’t be able to visualize the space,” said listing agent Robert Francis, a 12-year veteran of Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd. who posted the listing. He could not remember the name of the AI platform used to create the images, but said he had paid for a subscription to the service and had used AI in the past to generate virtual staging options for clients building homes new to help. display possible finishes. He also does traditional staging, where real furniture is moved into a space and pictures are taken, but he cites the virtual equipment as a cost-effective way of communicating possibilities to clients.
As for Mr Kelldonk’s complaint, the issue is when does “virtual” start to become misleading?
“There are no national rules when it comes to photos and AI. Local boards may have MLS System rules for this, but currently, there is no national rule or policy regarding the use of AI in property listings,” said Pierre Leduc, lead media relations with the Canadian Association of Realtors who host Realtor.ca .
In Ontario, all registered real estate professionals must adhere to the code of ethics defined under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA) and also any code of conduct for their local boards.
The regulations for TRESA include that “a registrar … makes every effort to ensure that any representations are correct; will not engage in or be a party to misrepresentation or any unethical practice.”
Interpreting that language is often left up to the individual.
“I’m not aware of any rule book. We just use common sense,” says Yuriy Setko, a realtor who runs BigPicture360, a Toronto service that does traditional real estate photography and videos as well as virtual tours and virtual staging. He’s happy to edit photos to remove things like recent steam cleaning marks in a carpet, or almost erase trash bins in front of a house because photos were taken on trash day, but there are limits to what he’ll edit. .
“When we are asked to remove a condo from a window, we refuse. What if people come and say: ‘There’s a condo … there was a clear sky in the picture what’s going on?’ You have to stay far away from misrepresenting the property,” he said.
RECO did not respond to questions about the complaint, but on the subject of virtual staging offered this statement: “RECO advises that buyers and their agents should always exercise due diligence by viewing properties for verification. Where certain images have been enhanced to give a buyer a sense of the art of what is possible with the space, then the brokerage or agent should note that in the listing.”
Not all listings on Realtor.ca with virtual staging images include public warnings of the presence of digitally enhanced photos, although Mr. Francis included a warning in the text of his listing: “Please note that some photos depict conceptual ideas, not actual representations.”
But for some in the virtual staging industry, a text warning may not be sufficient for more extensive renderings.
‘[The] a second photo hits you in the face, and at the end of the day it’s just a dirty garage,’ said Josh Kelldonk, a software developer living in Alberta who is using Realtor.ca as he plans to move to Toronto.Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd.
‘The root of my complaint: it is completely divorced from reality,’ said Mr. Keldonk.Re/Max Hallmark Realty Ltd.
“There’s a lot of growing demand and a bit of a learning curve as people adopt it,” said James Dylan Lloyd, Vancouver-based BellaStaging.ca business development manager. “This one in particular is the best example of the far end of the spectrum.”
Mr Lloyd said that Bella watermarks any image it changes significantly, and while it has experimented with AI, the disadvantages of the technology mean that the company prefers to stick to its team of human editors and designers.
“Some of the problems we faced is that it will completely hide aspects of the home: it will change power outlets, it will change the outdoors,” putting a blue sky in a window when in fact there is heavy bush, he said. Mr. Lloyd. . “The concern with using AI is that you don’t have a lot of control: you can’t change some outputs, so it essentially creates a completely new image every time.”
The Chatham garage listing also has images that show more commercial space, such as a restaurant plan (although the garage is zoned residential only) and others that remodel the exterior to suggest a massive brick building sitting on top of the existing structure.
Mr. Francis is clear in an interview with The Globe and Mail that those are only possible uses, although they are not currently allowed.
“This site could build to a height of 10 meters,” he said, although he would have to get permission from the city for that or for commercial rezoning. “We took those [exterior] pictures off; We had a lot of people calling and asking if it was part of a larger structure. We stayed away from that misrepresentation.”
Mr. Kellendork works with AI tools and isn’t suggesting it should be banned, but if his disappointment is any guide there may be an issue of trust when the virtual replaces the real.
“If every realtor starts doing this and all the listings have this AI tool on them, the value of the photos on them will be completely worthless,” he said.
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