Decorating homes was once a talent best left to interior designers and staging experts, but in an era dominated by technology it is no surprise to see digital software taking precedent in the design market. Many realtors are now diverting from traditional home staging and moving towards the future of virtual staging. A relatively cheap alternative that promotes the same if not better results. Curious? Here is everything you need to know about virtual staging.
What Is Virtual Staging?
Virtual staging is exactly what it sounds like; The act of staging a home, rather than in person, virtually. Virtual staging uses digital editing software to add furniture and other decorations to a home that appear to be actually in the home! Doing so is much cheaper and less time-consuming than the act of actually manually staging a home and can be used to make a property appear less cluttered, look more modern, or fill in space that was completely empty, to begin with! It also allows remote prospective buyers to imagine themselves in a home rather than an empty property.
When Is Virtual Staging Utilized?
Realtors stage homes when they want a property to appear more livable and appealing than an empty plot. Most of the time a virtually staged home is, in reality, empty. However, if there already is furniture, is is possible for professionals to remove all of the preexisting furniture digitally and replace it with more neutral and/or modern pieces.
Virtual vs. Traditional Staging
Virtual and traditional staging are both trying to achieve the same outcome. Making a property appear more livable during a showing. One showing is in person and the other online but at the end of the day that is just nuance. When it comes to one over the other realtors really only consider one thing: what needs am I trying to fulfill? For in-person showings and marketing purposes, it is probably much more effective to physically stage the home. However, for online markets and reachability, virtual staging is the preferred method of educated realtors. Traditional staging requires a professional stager to assess the property in order to make positive changes that result in a quicker sale of said property.
Process of Physical Staging
On arrival the professional stager will measure room sizes and take photographs to help determine the necessary items and decoration. When ready, the home stager will begin bringing in items and furniture that help flesh out the home and bring out the desired look. This is a process that can take days to weeks depending on the availability of furniture and labor. If the house isn’t already then the stager will likely ask for the property to be completely vacated of furniture, a task that will also take time and labor. This entire process is tedious and costly especially when you consider that doing this virtually can provide the same outcome but requires a fraction of the resources comparatively.
Virtual staging only requires professional images of the property to be taken and uploaded to digital editing software. Professional pictures that are going to be taken anyways with any legitimate listing. Including a fee that is a fraction compared to the process of physically staging a home the act of getting a home virtually staged is as simple as hiring a professional real estate photographer.
Read more about home staging here.
Benefits of Virtual Staging:
- Requires less work than traditional staging
- More cost and time effective than traditional staging
- Great resource to help boost sales in the online market
- Limitless resource; theoretically one can have any design, model, color, etc. regardless of physical availability
- Sales benefits are the same as physical staging
- SellFastPhoto offers the service for little extra cost
Drawbacks:
- Bad quality virtual staging leads to uncanny images that push potential buyers away
- Bad quality virtual staging may make a home look smaller
- DIY virtual staging software can look bad
- AI virtual staging can look fake and confusing
- virtual staging software for real estate can be difficult to use
- Virtual staging AI and virtual staging apps can be expensive
Examples of Virtual Staging
See some of our photo galleries, including examples of virtual staging here.
Legality
While virtual staging furniture can be used maliciously, if a home is sold “furnished” with furniture different than virtually staged furniture, there are in general no legal or moral repercussions to using virtual staging. Virtually staging is viewed today as equal to traditionally staging a home to broaden the appeal. Images that don’t discredit the true nature of a property are completely fine and are statistically proven to help improve sale times.
How much does virtual staging cost?
The cost of Virtual staging services can be anywhere from twenty to fourty dollars per photo. Price is certainly not the only factor to consider, it’s important to work with a virtual staging expert as the quality of images can drastically differentiate in every price range. For more information on our “virtually perfect virtual staging” and their prices check out the SellFastPhoto website!
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is no true downside to using virtual staging as long as it adequately fits the specific needs of an agent. For homes that are going to be mainly pushed and marketed online then virtual staging is without a doubt the way to go. For more information and to view quality, professional work, check out SellFastPhoto today!