'Real Housewives' star accused of using fake 'before' and 'after' photos for house-flipping business

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Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Former 'Real Housewives' star accused of using faking 'before' and 'after' photos for house-flipping business
A "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star is accused of faking "before" and "after" photos to promote his house flipping business.

PARK RIDGE, N.J. -- A "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star is accused of faking "before" and "after" photos to promote his house flipping business.

Joe Gorga, the boisterous brother of Teresa Giudice, often shares photos of home renovation projects on his Instagram account. Some posts even promote a real estate seminar.

In a now-deleted post, Gorga shared a photo of a house he said he flipped, writing: "Look at this flip worth $1.9m. Took me 6 months to turn this around. Ripped off the roof & added to the second floor. I think I might move in?"

Yet Caley Svensson said the "after" photo is her house in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and that it was never renovated by Gorga.

"It was a new construction ... the foundation was new," she said. "Everything about it was new. It was built from the ground up."

Not only is the "after" photo not one of Gorga's projects, the house in the "before" photo still looks the same.

According to Realtor.com, it sold just a few months ago. Svennson said she reached out to Gorga via Instagram to ask him to take down the post of his supposed renovation, but he never responded.

"We felt like he was using our house to advertise his business ... and (you) can't be making mistakes like that," she said. "You have to make sure that you check your facts and anything you put out there is true."