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by motoxpro 406 days ago
This is one of those things that makes a ton of sense, will be a successful product (whether here or, most likely, integrated into Zillow, Expedia, etc. for real estate, hotels, vacation rentals), but completely bums me out because the whole point of photos is to see what it looks like in reality.

Not one of the photos stays true to reality. I know AI will get better and more accurate and make less mistakes, but the end state is the platforms, or sellers, saying "Eh, let's just cover up that little hole or up the quality of the flooring or remove that branch that obscures the view."
2 comments
linsomniac 406 days ago
The virtual staging is tricky, my company has been keeping an eye on the various options for it for a while and they tend to make what we consider "surprising" changes. Buyers are used to staging where there is furniture and art brought in, but the structure of the property they expect to be what they see in the photo. The example on this page has changed the window and flooring, and made what look like some painting and drywalling changes from what you'd get if you purchased the property. Another thing that often happens is that outside scenery changes, what you see through the windows.
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kibet 405 days ago
Virtual staging is sometimes a hit and miss for us, especially for small, constricted spaces - the AI would just blatantly changes the structural integrity of the room and show something else.

Outside scenery is even worse with different seasons, it's ridiculous some times. But we've found for the most part, it tends to get it right. The other good thing is it's not a one shot thing, you get to keep revising it until it looks exactly as you'd want it. You can even target specific areas of the image you'd like to see and edit that part.

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kibet 405 days ago
I get your point, totally. My Goal with this is to ease the burden of editing. Now, people already editing their photos at the moment, and they spend a ton of time and money doing that. My goal with this is to make the process a tad easier, cheaper and faster for most.

Now unfortunately some people will take this too far and cover up every hole and crack, completely obfuscating reality. That will be the unfortunate outcome from some

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