Real estate photos are distorting reality, frustrating would-be home buyers!

Wide-angle lenses, photoshop and virtual staging: Real estate photo enhancement is reaching new heights as desperate sellers look to sell imperfect homes.

Trina Sandhu, along with her husband, growing family and French bulldog, had long been house-hunting in Toronto when she stumbled on a listing for a near-perfect space: a large, bright, century-old home with three spacious bedrooms, four bathrooms and a cozy basement with walkout to a large yard. “In the pictures, it looked like a beautiful fully renovated house,” she says. They immediately booked a showing.

In real life, the hardwood floors were so worn they needed to be ripped up and replaced, rough ceilings were faded and stained, and a seemingly open kitchen was actually a galley (in unusable condition no less). “We came to the conclusion that the whole place was a teardown,” says Sandhu, who left disappointed and didn’t make a bid.