When Realtor Sonia Rodriguez arrived to scope out a four-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in Annandale, Virginia, for her clients, she opened the door expecting to see a clean, well-lit, move-in-ready apartment. Instead, she was greeted to a space that could generously be described as lived-in, with marks on the walls, pots on the stovetop, and a cat staring at her from atop a cluttered dresser.

The contrast between the listing's photos, which featured bright, immaculate rooms and modern furniture, and the home's outdated decorations and grimy floors came as a shock. "That was the first time it's been that drastic of a difference.” It was a classic case of bait-and-switch — and a quick pass. "For this one, it was a no," she said. "My clients were looking for something that required less work."

Just as showing up for a date with someone whose profile photos don't match their appearance can be frustrating, so, too, can arriving at a house that looks nothing like its listing. Sellers usually aim to spruce up their properties to make them look as appealing as possible — tidying up, correcting a bad paint job, and sometimes even renting furniture to stage it. But now that those quick fixes can easily be carried out digitally with the advent of AI, the line between helping someone imagine a home's potential and misleading or duping them before they open the door is blurred. On dates, it's called catfishing. With homes, let's call it "housefishing."

Jake Gordon, a Realtor based in Long Beach, California, recalled bringing a client to a home only to discover a major eyesore: power lines on the property that did not appear in the online listing. "It wasted my time, my client's time, and it just felt like a bait and switch."

"Many of my clients have very time-consuming jobs where going out and seeing properties is not easy for them. If they have kids, if they work a lot, and then go to a home that isn't what it looks like in the photos, it can be infuriating."

Both Gordon and Rodriguez said they frequently encounter homes that differ significantly from their AI-enhanced listing photos, though the degree of difference varies. On social media, particularly blatant AI-enhanced listings have gone viral, prompting consumers to complain that the technology is enabling deceptive advertising. It's become a big enough issue that California passed a law in January 2026 limiting the use of AI in real estate listings. Now, at least in one state, using what some agents see as a helpful and empowering tool without disclosure is illegal.

A new California law which went into effect January 1, states that any digitally altered image used in ads or promotional material must include a disclosure. It also states that if digitally altered photos are posted online, they must also include the unaltered original photo.

Gordon applauded his state for cracking down. "It's all about transparency, so I do like it," he said, though he noted that enforcing the law may still be difficult. "For agents, it may add a new compliance layer. So the challenge will be defining the line between normal photo enhancement and altering the reality of a property."

It's hard to legislate it because the question is, was the intent of the person that did this to deceive, or did they really not understand the intricacies of AI because it's relatively new?"

It's still very much the Wild West for AI in real estate. Melody Storey, a real estate agent in Oklahoma, said she now uses AI for most of her virtual staging. She was introduced to the tool by her 22-year-old son, who suggested she test out AI to envision what one of her rental properties could look like after major renovations. "I tried it, it came up with some ideas, and I loved it.”

Storey, 53, has seen the industry change in the two decades since she got her start as a real estate agent. Before the advent of popular online listing services like Realtor and Zillow enabled prospective homebuyers to scroll through seemingly endless listings with dozens of photos each, listings were placed in newspapers, where only a handful of photos would fit on a page.

The jump from print ads to online listings meant agents like Storey had to adapt. She went from borrowing the sole office camera to take photos of a property, to hiring a photographer for hundreds of dollars, to doing the photography herself with her phone. Now that the power of AI is at her fingertips, the same home-staging tricks Storey used to hire someone to do the past can be done in seconds.