Virtual Staging: An Inexpensive Way of Staging Homes
by Rahul Agarwal
Virtual staging is taking off globally as an innovative and powerful marketing tool for showcasing ahome. Real estate agents can now easily market empty spaces using beautiful high-resolutionphotographs of furnished rooms.Although virtual staging might sound futuristic, it's actually an easy and inexpensive way tosuccessfully market a property.
What is Virtual Staging?
Virtual staging is a digital method of furnishing a space to showcase its maximum potential, without placing any physical furniture or involving traditional home staging companies. More and more real estate agents and sellers are partnering with virtual stagers to create next-level real estate images of tastefully furnished homes that can bring an empty room to life, thus making it easier to sell. Virtually-staged realistic images highlight the potential of the room and also tap into the buyer’s imagination and their vision for their new home.
How Virtual Staging Saves Money
Considering real estate agents or sellers pay out-of-their pockets for staging services, price is an important factor to consider while beginning to showcase a home.
Virtual staging can be done at a fraction of the cost and looks interchangeable to traditional staging. For example, while staging traditionally might take $1,200 per room, you can stage three rooms virtually for only $100.
In other words, virtual staging typically costs less than 1% of the property’s sale price. However, depending on the size of the project, physically staging can easily add up to thousands of dollars.
Benefits of Virtual Staging vs Traditional Home Staging
Some of the significant benefits of virtual staging are listed below:
1. Virtual staging is a powerful digital marketing tool.
Over 90% of home buyers start their search online. To attract and retain the interest of the vast majority of potential buyers, it is necessary to display visually-compelling images online.
When empty rooms are listed online, it becomes difficult for the buyer to conceptualize the potential of a room. Virtual staging showcases a space at its highest potential, thus allowing potential buyers to easily visualize their future homes.
2. Virtual staging is significantly cheaper than traditional home staging.
Although home staging can provide a significant return on investment, not all sellers or agents have the budget to afford expensive furnishings. This especially holds true if the home is on the market for a long period of time. Since traditional staging costs a few thousand dollars, the investment may not be beneficial for mid-range or smaller homes and can considerably reduce the profit margin.
Virtual staging can effectively stage a home for a few hundred dollars with realistic photos of every room, thus showcasing individual spaces at their highest potential. This not only avoids drawn-out and expensive furniture rentals, but also prevents the headache of maintaining the property while it’s on the market.
3. Virtual staging has unlimited design elements.
Traditional staging offers a limited variety of options and depends entirely on how much you are willing to invest. With virtual staging services, you have a vast portfolio of furnishing options that are regularly updated according to the latest design trends.
4. Occupied homes can be virtually staged.
If a home on the market is occupied by the seller or tenant, it is nearly impossible to be physically staged. In this case, virtual staging is an excellent option as the personal items and furnishing in the occupied home can be removed or edited to make the home look more appealing to the buyers.
About the Author
Rahul Agarwal is the Co-founder & Chief Business Officer at Styldod, where he has taught a computer to do interior design! Styldod provides the most hassle-free & inexpensive virtual staging solutions for real estate agents so they can sell their listings faster, and for higher prices. Rahul was also a co-founder of Mebelkart (which was acquired by Ask Me). He's your everyday IIT Kanpur nerd who pushes the boundaries with his innovative entrepreneurial stints and is also a sound startup investor & advisor. Rahul attributes his success as a professional to the discipline he has learned from his district hockey days, being a swimmer and a gym enthusiast.
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