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If your goal is to sell your property quickly, and for the best price you can get for it (and what seller doesn’t want that?), potential buyers need to be able to visualize the home as their own. Buyers can’t get a feel for an empty house, so they’ll need help visualizing how they might use the space and decorate it. When you’re selling a home, home staging makes this possible by bringing in furniture and home décor accents, and turning your seller’s home into a beautiful, cohesive space that buyers can easily envision themselves in. In a 2021 survey of 4,600 properties conducted by the Real Estate Staging Association, homes that were staged sold approximately 9 days faster than homes that weren’t staged. Staging your home will also help it sell for a higher dollar value. According to the National Association of Realtors, home staging increases the dollar value of a residence between 6% and 10%.
Staging a home before you list it is a crucial step to selling success. But what if staging isn’t an option? Staging requires a clean, depersonalized slate in order for buyers to be able to envision the space as their own. Storing existing furniture and belongings can be a hassle. In addition, hiring a professional stager can be costly- especially if the home stays on the market for an extended period of time. Virtual Staging is a way for sellers to be able to showcase their home’s potential, without the cost of a traditional stager.
Virtual staging has also become increasingly popular in the wake of the pandemic. As buyers and sellers alike migrate to a no-contact experience when looking to purchase or sell a home, the cost of home staging has taken a backseat to the option of virtually showcasing how beautiful a listing has the potential of being. Having the ability to allow buyers to envision the home beautifully decorated while maintaining the safety of being able to remain distanced has been a great alternative to the riskiness of in-house showings that require multiple people to gather in a confined space.
There are a few caveats to Virtual Staging. With the digital image being the only thing altered, the property might not reflect the same impression to buyers who come onsite to view it. As a result, would-be buyers can potentially have a different impression and leave with a different experience. To help avoid this issue, TREC guidelines state that all virtually staged images must be clearly marked with a disclaimer that states the images have been modified. In addition, if not done well, the end result can look “pasted on”, or unrealistic.
There are also certain limitations to Virtual Staging. Just as there is no substitute for the actual experience of walking through a museum, no matter the quality of an online tour, there is also no substitute for experiencing the luxurious textures and the firsthand beauty of a well-put-together space. Additionally, if the room is not shot at the correct angle for the desired digital enhancement, there could be some difficulty in making the resulting image appear realistic. Finally, there are often limited designs and looks available, whereas, with home staging, the only design limitation is your imagination.
While both services certainly have their place in the photography real estate market, Virtual Staging can often be the fast, cost-effective solution to giving your client’s buyers a chance to emotionally connect to a property and give them a glimpse into the potential appeal of their future home.
Virtual Removal is another option if your goal is to have a blank slate that your potential buyers can imagine without predisposition to what the room could be. In this process, the existing furniture is removed from an image entirely, allowing the beauty of the home’s elements and fixtures to shine, and letting buyers envision the space with their own tastes and preferences.
Whether you opt for the inspiring beauty of Virtual Staging, the clean canvas of Virtual Removal, or the visceral experience of Home Staging, putting this effort into your images will set your listing apart, and give your buyers the ability to envision it as a place they want to call home.
