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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Lifestyle
Arwa Mahdawi

Anatomy of a BS real estate listing: eight tricks we all fall for

illustration of a phone with a beautiful image being held over the same scene in reality, which is dirty with cracked walls
The first photo you see is where all the effort is, a real estate agent says. Illustration: Gizem Winter/The Guardian

There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are real estate listings. If you have ever wasted hours of your life clicking through houses for sale or rent (are you human? of course you have) then you will know exactly what I mean. That Scandi-chic – and surprisingly affordable – upstate cabin that looked so cute in the photos? It’s actually a crumbling hovel on the side of a highway.

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