'Instagram vs. Reality': Homeowner shares unedited videos of a house she bought from aspiring DIY influencers to make a point on how misleading social media can be

• An Oregon homeowner discovered her home was misrepresented online by former aspiring DIY influencers.
• Sara Van Ess told Insider she started uploading the reality of her new home to highlight how heavily edited social media can be.

When copywriter Sara Van Ess and her husband purchased their home in 2021, they quickly discovered that the aesthetically pleasing online photos of the house weren't entirely accurate.

The 24-year-old Oregon resident took to TikTok to share the reality of her home after discovering it'd been previously owned by aspiring do-it-yourself influencers who she said shared heavily edited, misleading photos of the house.

"Six months after we bought the house, we heard through the grapevine it had been used a lot on Instagram. I started searching for it and stumbled across a kitchen I recognized," Van Ess told BuzzFeed.

In a September video, Van Ess explained the purpose of her "Instagram vs. Reality" series on TikTok wasn't to shame the former owners but rather to show social media users they shouldn't compare themselves to what they see online.

"The content we put out there does not just impact us, it impacts the people who view it," Van Ess told Insider. "If you move into a house that's far from perfect, even if it was portrayed differently, take a moment to recognize that many, many houses are this way — and you can still find peace there."

In now-deleted videos, Van Ess shared the "influencer photos" used in the home's listing photos but took them down to protect the identity of the previous owners. One of whom, she says, is a contractor.

"The point was never to give them hate," Van Ess said in the video. "It was to share how easily reality can be manipulated on social media."

In more of her TikTok videos, Van Ess shared the many "unfinished" areas of her home that influencers wouldn't want you to see — including a textured kitchen ceiling and poorly installed flooring.

Despite the imperfections in the home, she said she and her husband, 26, had the space inspected and were aware of the cosmetic issues.

"It makes me really sad to think that there are pictures out there of my house that could be making people feel lesser about theirs because we compare ourselves so often on social media," Van Ess said.

Commenters urged Van Ess to continue her series as an insight into how DIY home improvement projects actually turn out.

"Thank you for showing this! As somebody who had to settle for a poorly maintained, unfinished home, this was really helpful to see," one user wrote.

Meanwhile, others brushed off her concerns about sharing deceptively edited photos online.

"You act like everyone doesn't do the same thing (in) all of their photos," one user wrote.