Even the non-enhanced photos are carefully curated. My neighbor just put her house on the market and she mentioned that the photographer used a wide angle lens while lying on the floor etc - knowing the house, I can easily see the difference, but others would not
I regularly check Zillow and Redfin. I have both apps on my phone. Mostly in the area my son and DIL want to buy but also my area. Most of the time you can tell the pictures are professional and often misleading. But occasionally you get the absolute worst pictures I have ever seen. In my daughters area there was a fixer for sale and there was only one picture of a messy, worn down kitchen.
I hate those wide angle photos. They do not make a room look better; they make it look distorted!
I’m amazed at the number of homes here where homeowners don’t do even the most basic pick-up for realtor photos: counters full of dirty dishes, toys and laundry everywhere, disgusting bathrooms, etc. I can’t believe people know a realtor is coming for photos and do nothing to prepare…
Occasionally I search the internet for listings of land or for oceanfront lots.
I prefer to have a new built home.
I do not like large homes, but I love large lots. And I love fences. One to keep the dogs in and the other to keep the neighbors out.
My H is a realtor and did a lot years ago but it’s taken a back seat to his legal practice. Sometimes, he sells a house for an estate client. I used to help him show houses and it was fun, but I didn’t enjoy the negotiating aspect of it, which he loves. Ironically, I am a civil trial attorney and I STILL hate negotiating. Anyway, real estate can be a great career for a person who is outgoing and personable (like my H) and doesn’t mind clients calling (or texting/emailing) at all hours and has the ability to sell. for $150, I could be a real estate broker, too, but I’ve never gotten my license.
The day we had a photographer took photos of our House1 in order to put it on the market, a hot air balloon had an emergency and landed on the horse pasture across the street. The photo of our house with the giant balloon in the air above it was retouched, but the only thing that was changed was the sky color (it was grey due to wildfires)… the balloon was the real thing. And dagnabbit- no one believes us that the balloon was not photoshopped until we whip up our own photos and videos! 
Our House2 is an old stooge… but it photographs like a palace. I have no idea why… it just does. I swear I can take photos with my old iPhone and they’re going to be listing quality! ?
Recently there was a listing for an apartment in my daughter’s building. Very small studio which was crammed with stuff. Front and center hanging off the handles to a dresser were a couple of bras! Did nobody notice that before they used that picture, wasn’t the tenant mortified?
We looked at real estate constantly, but were in the market in the Seattle / Tacoma area. That dream died as we watched in horror while prices skyrocketed. We had sticker shock when we started looking, but the cost increase over the last 4 years effectively made it impossible. Looking now is just depressing!
I don’t look unless I hear of something in my neighborhood and I want to see the price. I’ve lived in my same home for 30 plus years and don’t plan on moving.
Younger D looks religiously in her area. She has a dream of owning horse property so she is constantly looking. She looks on Redfin and Zillow.
On the other hand, I remember looking at the listing for a house around the corner from us which was on the market for years. When I took a look at the photos they actually had one of the living room where you could see they had run the carpet up the wall 3 or feet on either side of the fireplace. OMG! It was like a caricature of every bad 1970s design fad. It did finally sell last year.
Add me to the list of people that looks at houses on a regular basis. D recently bought a place and I was online looking at prices for a couple of months, trying to figure out typical price ranges for the area she was looking at. In fact, even before she matched for residency, I was searching for houses in all of her top five spots! On the day she matched, I was able to tell her the average price range for houses there and that she could look into buying one!
I am also constantly looking out for vacation homes. We may never buy one - but that doesn’t stop me from looking I’d love a place with a view of the ocean - keep looking for one that might fit my husband’s budget 
raises hand
I have a Realtor who sends me every listing in my neighborhood. That really came in handy when I protested my taxes this year. I knew a house with my floor plan had sold at a bargain-basement price in September 2019 because it had no upgrades but was flipped six months later for, no lie, 66% more. Of course, taxes are a snapshot on Jan. 1 of the year so I was able to get the appraisal district to consider the much-cheaper price using photos on Zillow from the two separate listings.
Ds1 has the real estate bug so has alerts set on Zillow in various cities with various parameters (he and his soon-to-be wife will be relocating for school next year). We talk a lot about the local market as he sends me pics of houses they’d consider (moving back here is an option), but he’ll also send me pics of random houses in random cities that he thinks are interesting. I recently sent him a pic of a house right down the street from me the minute it went on the market, and he said what a good price it was. I laughed, because I had just talked my appraisal down to more than $200k lower than that listing, and I felt a little guilty.
In terms of distorted pics, I always look at the double sinks in the bathroom. One looks great, and one looks crazy. lol
Just watched a video for a potential apartment for my daughter - ad says no pets - video clearly has dog on couch with his bowls on the floor in the living room!
Guilty. It started with toying with the idea of a lake vacation home. Then, one day DH said why don’t we just look for a permanent home on a lake. So it began. We started doing a drive-by and stalking homes that were listed on Zillow, Realtor, Redfin. But, none were just right within our budget. We agreed we would only consider a waterfront home or one with a good lake view . Today, we actually toured a home and it was pretty awesome. Old house but everything was updated beautifully and I could see ourselves in it. However, lake view was minimal and the commute, whenever we go back to our offices, would be long. Do we really want to go through the chore of selling our current house? or do we just work on updating our current house that we have tailored to our liking. It is just not on a lake. Uggh, There will be no sleep tonight and someone else will probably put an offer while we overthink it. I feel lke we are in an episode of love it or leave it.
We do this all the time, with a twist. All of the houses we look at are antiques, usually Federal era or earlier. I just finished looking at a listing for a house built in 1699 in VA that my husband sent me. And when we lived in neighborhoods in the past, we’d definitely go to open houses. I think it’s fine to do this, because even if you’re not interested, you can still talk it up (or warn people off) to people who are looking.
Another real estate devotee here. It took a few years for me to find my downsize house, as my budget is limited and wanted a certain popular neighborhood. I still look up most houses that come up for sale within a certain radius, partially for comparison sake and for remodeling ideas.
I get a Zillow feed with S’s San Diego neighborhood, and adore the styles in the older neighborhoods. I also look in northern AZ, as have considered moving back to the area, but am getting depressed as prices are climbing too fast for comfort in the communities I consider home.
Does anyone else look on Airbnb or VBRO for decorating ideas? I agree on training the eye as someone mentioned above.
Don’t get me started on real estate listing photos that are awful! I have seen the worst, or walked into homes that were disgusting. Most of the time the home is a rental and the tenants are not cooperating with the sale or just don’t care about cleaning it up. Or a distressed sale/divorce type situation. They have no energy to clean up the house. Honestly, at that point just take a picture of the outside and drop the price. Don’t even bother with horrible interior photos.
I always tell people, if you can afford it in any possible way, move out of the house (get tenants out), then put up for sale after cleaned up with professional staging or minimal furniture. The time on market will be much quicker and sales price will be better. Saves money in the long run.
You’re my kind of people. Even as a kid I liked looking at the floor plans that came with listings in the ad section of the Sunday paper.
About those photos- they made my 1950’s 1100+ SF childhood home look so much better. I have to remember what it was like being there for a visit last year- tiny kitchen, bathroom door so narrow… My sibs got to empty the house (father in memory care) and clean it- getting rid of the worn out LR carpet to show the wood floors and removing so much stuff and non-donatable furniture. Realtor treated it as an estate sale- as is and it got an above asking offer quickly. Nice sized yard and area.
One thing I have noticed over the years. The parts of the country we would like to live in tend to have house styles we like.
TG for Zillow and the local RE broker websites. I hated going into open houses - liked seeing the houses, hated talking to the agents.
My mom started to sell RE when she wanted to find a new house for our family.
Anyway, when my sis put her townhouse on the market recently, it was interesting to see the others for sale in the complex & what the differences were.
In my area, we’re looking forward (ha!) to the rezones that will hit in 5 & 15 years. Some current owners are trying and failing at selling to profit too early. We like seeing what $1M will buy in those cases- 1960s 1,000 sq ft homes on a 11,000 sq ft lot.
Since we aren’t planning on moving yet, it’s just for fun and fancy.
Just saw another former home online and feel somewhat down and convinced I must lack imagination and any decorating skill. It was a house we bought in a seller’s market solely for its location. We never could come up with a furniture arrangement we liked and didn’t have the funds to do any major work. H was never happy with it but couldn’t make any positive suggestions.
The people who bought the house from us have worked wonders. The main floor is now cohesive, it has great flow, the colors are beautiful, and it’s elegant as well as comfortable looking. They also finished the walk-out basement with some gorgeous details and added a pool, which we couldn’t do at that time.