Lydia Fletcher, 27, a graphic designer and first-time buyer, is hoping to buy a three-bedroom home in Cheshire or Greater Manchester with her partner Josh, 34, an architectural technologist, who is selling his one-bedroom flat in Old Trafford. Their budget is around £400,000.
We've been looking for a house since the end of last year. We started by viewing a few new builds, and the first thing that struck us was how small they felt in real life.
In the online brochures, they looked great – really spacious and much bigger than they actually were. You go in expecting the house to be amazing, but it turns out to be little more than a box. Often, the online floorplans don't include measurements, so there's no real way of gauging the proportions until you get there.
We viewed one three-bedroom house in Bolton, and it actually felt no bigger than the apartment we're moving out of. We were considering buying in Knutsford, but the only show home was in Bolton, so we'd travelled all that way just to see it. It took us about an hour.
We both work full-time and only have Saturdays and Sundays free, so viewings take up a huge chunk of our weekends. It's really disappointing when you arrive and the house is nothing like you expected. We could be spending that time relaxing or doing something else, so it all becomes quite disheartening.
The landing has become a massive red flag for me. We viewed one house in Wilmslow where the landing was so small that the two of us could hardly move when we were standing on it together.
Another thing that stood out with the house in Bolton was the main bedroom. The online photos showed a wardrobe, but it was a bit misleading because it was only a single wardrobe. They'd positioned a huge bed in the middle of the room to make it look as though there was loads of space around it. In reality, there wasn't.
Online, the decor was all beige and neutral tones, so it felt really calm. But when we visited the show home, it looked completely different. There were huge black-and-white striped walls, one room was decorated entirely in Tiffany & Co. turquoise and silver, and the main bedroom was black and pink. There were signs all over the walls too – one was a huge pair of neon lips. We found it quite distracting because it looked nothing like we'd expected.
I've learned to spot the warning signs now. If there's a 'bedroom' in the photos with nothing but a dressing table, or just a desk and chair, it usually means the room isn't actually big enough for a bed. We also viewed one show home with a really odd boiler setup hidden away in a cupboard. It looked like a wardrobe, but when you opened the door there was a boiler and a single shelf inside, so it definitely wasn't a wardrobe.
The kitchens are another thing. We visited one show home that looked gorgeous online, with a really lovely kitchen. What they don't tell you is that the kitchen itself wasn't included in the asking price. Neither were the appliances or the flooring. I think that's really misleading.
With the older houses we've looked at, it's the exterior photos that are the biggest problem. I'll see a beautiful house online, but as soon as I check it on Google Street View, I realise it's nothing like the photos suggest. There'll be a skip outside, rubbish everywhere and weeds growing all over the place.
The photographs can also disguise awkward layouts. There was one house we looked at recently with a wall running almost the entire length of the bathroom, separating the shower from the bath. It certainly didn't look like that online.
Often, the quality and condition of the bathrooms and kitchens is far worse than you expect. They look really modern in the photos, but then you arrive to find bubbling lino instead of proper flooring in the kitchen, and cracks in the walls that weren't visible in the photographs. I don't know how the photographers do it, really. I'm guessing it's clever lighting tricks and, inevitably, a wide-angle lens.
Maybe there's even some AI manipulation in some cases. As a graphic designer, I create brochures for TMC Strategic Communications, where we have an AI task force and clear policies on how and where AI is used, so we remain responsible and transparent about its use.
Meanwhile, Josh and I are still looking. We must have viewed at least 12 houses by now, and Josh is convinced that, no matter what it looks like online, one day we'll walk into a house and just know it's 'the one'.
What the property photos don't tell you
• 'The purpose of property marketing is to get people through the front door, but if they arrive feeling they've been catfished by a house, you've achieved very little,' says Nina Harrison, buying agent at Haringtons UK. 'I recently viewed a property where the photographs were gorgeous, yet the moment you stepped into the garden you were confronted by huge silver extraction pipes from the neighbouring building.'
• Treat listing photographs as marketing rather than a complete representation of the property, advises Paula Higgins, chief executive of property advice consumer group Homeowners’ Alliance: 'Wide-angle lenses, careful cropping and increasingly AI-enhanced images can make rooms look larger and more polished, so compare the photographs with the floorplan and actual room measurements.'
• However, Nina believes AI in property marketing does have its uses: 'If you're looking at a tiny cottage in a conservation area or a flat with awkward spaces, AI can help you visualise what could be done. The important word, though, is "could". AI is very good at showing the dream. It's much less good at showing the planning refusal, the £100,000 building quote and six months of dust in your hair.'
• Look closely at what a listing does not show, adds Paula: 'Missing photographs of the bathroom, garden, rear exterior or certain rooms can be revealing, while vague phrases such as "in need of modernisation" may mean substantial work is required.'
• 'And with older properties, don't assume those expensive-looking improvements have been carried out properly,' says buying agent Sam Child, owner of Samantha Child Property Search. 'Extensions, loft conversions and alterations should always be checked for the appropriate permissions, approvals and documentation, as well as the quality and guarantees given for the new fittings.'
