Finding an apartment in 2024 is a savage experience, to say the least. Scouring through panoramic, super-compressed photos, going out with 50 other people for two hours for a 20-minute viewing, and praying to God there to help you survive the grueling application process that follows.

I went through all of that this year, but trying to find an apartment like the one in the posted photo was the hardest part. I dissected far too many images to see how much creative freedom real estate agents take, but I can assure you that no agent was cheeky enough to supplement the actual photos with a vague reproduction in The Sims 4. [The Spanish rental market must be doing things a little differently. That's because one listing in Idealista started making the rounds after a Twitter user, who had found the ad while her husband was looking for an apartment, pointed out that it used a screenshot from Lifesim. Screenshots, as I like to call them, are a classic case of "take a picture of the monitor with your phone. It shows all of the furniture in the blank apartment: the sofa, the TV, the fridge, and the bedside table next to the fridge. The picture shows all of the furniture in the blank apartment: the sofa, the TV, the refrigerator, and a random bedside table next to the refrigerator. In addition, there are several books on the coffee table and cooking utensils and kitchen rolls on the counter.

Twitter replies began to include Sims-related jokes, with one user asking, "Can you pay with a simoleon?" and another tweeting, "Pay your mortgage with the mother lode," poking fun at the game's cheat codes.

The original tweeter noted that she had already reported the listing to Idealista, with a reply discussing how such scams are becoming increasingly common, and thankfully, it appears to have been taken down.

Now, listen, I certainly tried to recreate my living quarters in The Sims 4 as a way to plan decorating, or just as fancy, but I would never dream of using that creation to rent a real house to poor defenseless souls.

I also wonder how much a real-life apartment really looks like; anyone who has spent any time in the build mode of The Sims 4 knows how difficult it is to create a small space. A space lit by the cold harsh light of reality would seem much more cramped and perhaps even dilapidated. Assuming it exists in the first place. If it exists, you might be able to get it for as low as 0 euros by typing in FreeRealEstate On.