That's no staging, not bad staging. I've seen worse.

Maybe a divorce situation where the party living in the house doesn't want it to sell?

I've seen worse, and unless the owner took their own photos for the listing, I would place some of the blame on the realtor. My issue with similar photos is they point to lack of storage even if there is enough to make do. This one tells me no utility closet close at hand.

We had a summer cottage on a lake for sale and the agent took pictures will all of the porch and deck furniture brought inside for the winter. We made him come back and take new pictures.

I've also seen worse. I've also seen the realtor just take 3 minutes to take pics that are obviously from a cell phone and post them for the listing. At least in my area, it's still an extremely strong seller's market, with little inventory to buy. The interest rate increases have had no effect on that in my area. Sellers and realtors don't need to make much effort to sell a home. I've seen some listings that show piles of laundry on the floor, or unmade beds, or dishes in the sink, and they are still under contract within a couple of days.

The last house I bought had HORRIBLE pictures (think orange shag carpet from the 70s). It was an estate sale of a 1925 home. The house was beautiful but the realtor was lazy. Their laziness and the homeowners adult offspring not seeming to care....got me a great deal on an amazing house that just needed to be painted and original wood floors cleaned up.

There's a tenant in place. You can't force them to clean up, nor can you move their stuff. If I were a tenant I'd neaten because I don't really want people seeing my personal belongings, but if you are pissed that the apartment is getting sold and therefore you're likely going to have to move, this is a good way to impede a sale!

It's bananas! (Sorry.)

Tough with a tenant, although I'm like the poster above and would definitely neaten for anyone coming into my living space, especially a photographer. Perhaps the tenant doesn't want to leave.

Perhaps the tenant had little notice that someone was coming to take photos.

I figured it was a tenant situation. The photos certainly tell a buyer that the condo doesn't have enough storage space!

I feel like property owners should pre-approve photos before the property is listed. Momentum is lost on the sale of a property with photos such as this. My sister spent big bucks on a kitchen remodel and then the angle of the photo made her kitchen look very claustrophobic.

In tenant situations, even though most rental leases here say that the landlord reserves the right to show the property with notice at the end of the lease, there is not a whole lot you can do if they don't want to leave for you to look at the property, or even if they decide not to let you in.

I have gone to look at properties where there have been people lying in bed who just continue to watch TV while you walk around. I was looking at a property where one of the tenants threatened the real estate agent when she unlocked the door. I looked at a property where there was a commercial lease on the first floor when when they saw us coming they ran over and locked the door and laughed and gave us the finger. Many tenants don't want to have to move. It is not up to the agent or photographer or even Owner of the property to tidy up a tenant's possession and honestly, at least where I live they would be well advised to not touch a single thing if they take pictures.

This post brought back a now hilarious memory for me. In early 70’s we were being shown homes in CA bay area. During one showing we were aware before going in that a babysitter was there with 2 small kids, the owners at work. All fine. Realtor opened door to master bedroom & turned on light. A man, who’d apparantly been sound asleep, lept out of bed & ran into what we knew was the closet. He was stark naked! We stood in shock for a moment, turned & left the house before bursting into tears from laughing so hard. That home had also been a mess inside.

OMG @palimpsest - your third photo, I thought was an unmade bed with a blanket in a heap. On closer look there is a person under there. Cracked me up!

For those who are assuming this is a tenant, it is an OWNER who lives in it.

I guess she is self sabotaging because she doesn't want to move

Not everyone believes that there is anything the matter with their house exactly as it is, because that's how they live in it and it doesn't bother them.

There was a multi-million dollar unit here that was cluttered and visibly dirty in the listing photos. The price was high enough that the Realtor offered to pay to have the apartment cleaned and staged using what was there. The decor was also very strange.

The owner would not let the cleaners in the day they came and would not move a thing. There was "nothing the matter with it as it is". You can't Force the owner to make their property more attractive to other people.

It seems cluttered, but it also seems fairly clean. That makes me think of what happened to us when we sold our last house. Our agent made an appointment to measure the house. The house was clean and straight, but because I thought he was only measuring I was doing laundry. I had a laundry basket on a kitchen stool when he arrived. When I noticed him taking a few pictures he assured me he would be back out for more pictures and not to worry about the laundry basket. Sure enough, he used the pictures from that day including a picture or two with a laundry basket.

This was years ago before using a professional photographer was common.

It's possible the owner was not expecting pictures that day.

When I worked as an agent I always warned buyers about what to expect in tenant situations. I live in a college town with lots of student rentals. The things I've seen (and smelled occasionally) would fill a book or two. None compared to the owner occupied house I listed from a referral. There was literally animal feces sitting on the living room floor, a health hazard kitchen, and bathroom that hadn't been cleaned in years and other junk everywhere. The day a group of agents did toured a house owned by a single professor was memorable. We knew the owner was a single guy, but a pair of women's underwear was on a couch cushion.

Very messy, but yes, I've seen worse. Nothing like opening a bedroom door and finding it full of dirty laundry and unwashed linens - you could not only see it, you could SMELL it!

It does make one wonder about the sellers, LOL......