You can photoshop immaterial items, like the color of the sky, but can not add, delete, or change material facts.
At least, that is what I have been told.

Just ask the photographer to aim lower to miss the light fixture. He'll understand.

Things we photoshopped:
--a wire on a tower across the street and far away, that, from the camera angle looked like it was coming into the house. They removed it.
--the driveway, which was splotchy from hosing it off and being partially dry. They photoshopped to make it look 100% wet.

Things we didn't photoshop:
--The brown landscaping
--Anything on the house itself

I don't see a big issue with photoshopping out a broken light. It wouldn't be much different than aiming so it's not in the shot, or pulling it out of the way. Or moving furniture for a photo, and then putting it back in place for the showing. Photoshopping IN a light would be a problem.

I was just looking at a local real estate listing and came across something I'd never seen before:

Look at the very bottom under listing information. it says - some property photos virtually staged.

Interesting . . .

Here is a link that might be useful: Listing

mamattorney, I think it is now your job to go view the place and tell us what it look like in person.

For 2.2M, they couldn't *actually* stage it?

I think they had someone put in the furniture, exercise equipment, etc. over photos of the bare house.

Cheaper than actually staging it.

kirkhall - that's what I said to myself! Here the OP was worried about a broken light fixture that was going to be replaced just not in time for the photographer to take pictures, and this house, for all anyone knows, could have been completely empty when it was listed.

I don't think it's concerning for this particular house because all the rooms are a good size, but I could see fiddling with the proportions of fake furniture in another house that would make it look much, much bigger than it is. If you see a queen size bed in a picture, you presume the room can fit a queen size bed, etc.

The more odd comment is: Sale Price Includes Parking

oops double post

This post was edited by cmarlin20 on Wed, Mar 19, 14 at 13:35

Yes, you can photoshop out the light fixture.

mamattorney, I think photoshop staging sounds like a good idea!