Table of Contents
- What Is Virtual Staging (VS)?
- Why Use Virtual Staging?
- Top 5 Reasons to Virtually Stage Your Listing Photos
- Is Virtual Staging Legal?
- Use PhotoUp’s Virtual Staging Service for the Best Results
Virtual staging is a powerful real estate photo editing technique to create stunning images that can help you sell your listings faster without breaking your budget.
One of the most effective techniques to create captivating real estate images and quickly sell a home is virtual staging. It lets the buyer imagine what their new home will look like once they are all moved in and it’s fully decorated.
In this post, we’ll share everything you need to know about virtual staging. We’ll also cover why and how you should use this powerful marketing tool to sell your listing for top dollar.
Let’s get started!
What Is Virtual Staging (VS)?🛋️
Virtual staging (VS) is a powerful real estate marketing and visualization tool, where professional CAD (computer-assisted design) artists add digital furniture and decor to empty or outdated spaces.
This is done by creating highly realistic furniture, decor, and accent pieces and then integrating them into an image of a vacant or outdated interior.
VS can also be used to perform renovations and redecorations, as it allows homeowners to examine a wide range of decorating and style options, all from the comfort of a computer.
Digital staging creates highly realistic real estate images by changing things like:
- Furniture, decor, and wall hangings
- Flooring and carpeting
- Paint colors and wallpaper
- Window treatments and lighting
- The landscaping
- And more!
The goal is to make it look like an inviting home that buyers can visualize themselves living in.
How Does Virtual Staging Work? Twilight Virtual Staging by PhotoUp
Virtual staging works much like traditional home staging, but without having to physically add furniture and decor to the home.
Instead, CAD artists create interiors in specific styles by adding or removing furniture, editing colors, wall paint, accessories, lighting, and other elements in a given space to make it look like an inviting home.
The good news is that the digital version of staging real estate images only costs a fraction of regular home staging, typically 97% less.
It’s also faster than regular home staging, and only takes 24-48 hours, instead of the days it can take to physically stage a home.
Fast & Affordable
Virtual Staging Service
Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.
Why Use Virtual Staging?🛏️
There are many reasons why you should use virtual staging to boost your real estate marketing.
To provide you with some key reasons, we’ll turn to the data, starting with the advantages of staging before selling a home in general:
- 83% of staged properties sell at the asking price or above
- 100% of buyers begin their search online, and you have to catch a buyer’s attention quickly
- And staged homes sell 75% faster than those that are not
Additionally, here are more compelling statistics on staging, plus its powerful digital counterpart, virtual staging:
The bottom line? Traditional home staging can help sell a home at a higher price. But it takes time and quite a bit of money.
Top 5 Reasons to Virtually Stage Your Listing Photos🚪🛏️
With that in mind, let’s take a look at 5 reasons why you should consider virtual staging to improve your real estate marketing.
1. Quick and Affordable
Digital staging saves agents and sellers both time and money as compared to traditional staging. As mentioned, it can reduce costs by up to 97%.
PhotoUp has a team of professional designers ready to turn your dull photos into captivating real estate photos that will capture buyers’ attention and sell listings faster.
In only 24 hours, you’ll receive low-resolution proofs, and in 48 hours or less, you will be able to download your high-resolution images.
Best yet, the digital version of home staging can help you save thousands of dollars. Traditional home staging typically costs anywhere from $1,000 to 20,000 depending on the size and type of the property.
2. Increased Home Sales
VS can also attract more online buyer interest and help contribute to higher offers. Home buyers are more attracted to real estate photos with well-furnished interiors rather than photos of empty homes.
Images of rooms with modern and fresh furniture, beautiful bookshelves, and decor can provide an inviting feeling of life and warmth, making the buyer think, “I could see myself living in this house!”
Consequently, it’s this feeling and imagination that often prompts buyers to close the deal and can make them willing to pay more for the home.
3. Ability to Explore Design Options
Digitally staging empty spaces helps prospective homebuyers visualize the space better and imagine themselves living in the home.
As an agent or seller, you can help homebuyers explore different design options and show them how a space would look in either the Scandinavian style or the beachy-chic Coastal look.
Before & After Scandinavian VS Style
Before & After Coastal VS Style
Why not show buyers how a room could look when decorated in three different interior design styles? If they don’t like the first design style, they will most likely like the second or third style.
This will help them see the home’s potential and can accelerate the sale.
Fast & Affordable
Virtual Staging Service
Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.
4. Cater to Any Market
Another great advantage of VS is that you can actually customize the space depending on the style and preference of the home, agent, or buyer demographic.
You can basically cater to any market by asking, for example, these questions and digitally stage the home based on your target market:
- Does the home look more rustic or modern?
- Is it a coastal beach home?
- Is the homebuyer demographic in your area primarily looking for the farm/ranch style home?
- Or does your Realtor only work with high-wealth individuals who like a modern, luxurious look?
PhotoUp’s professional designers can then fill the space with precisely what you or your clients are looking for.
In other words, VS allows you to target the needs of your market directly and make the listing more appealing to specific buyers.
5. Declutter Space and Redecorate
No one wants to see a property photo of a stuffed, messy, and cluttered space. That may actually turn potential buyers away from wanting to view the home.
Even outdated decor and furnishings and personal items scattered all over the place can throw off the neediest homebuyer. Luckily, you can easily and quickly declutter or redecorate your images with the help of VS.
For starters, you can replace that old gym/office space with a nice, fresh, and inviting living room area, like in this example:
Is Virtual Staging Legal?🏛️
Some people ask, “Is it legal?” “Is it ethical?” “Will buyers visiting the property feel deceived?”
The answer to these questions is that VS is not only legal, but it is perfectly ethical. As long as you disclose that the images are virtually staged, you won’t mislead buyers.
Simply, labeling your images as “Virtual Staging” will prevent potential buyers from feeling deceived when they see the home in person. Or, you can add clear before and after photos of the room.
To recap, here’s a visual summary of how to transform vacant listings into sold homes with virtual staging:
Now that you know why you should use virtual staging and about the legal aspects, let’s take a look at how to best get your images virtually staged.
Use PhotoUp’s Virtual Staging Service for the Best Results🏆
Even though there’s DYI VS software out there and it may seem like an affordable solution, your image quality will suffer.
Hence, also your marketing results!
We recommend that you use a professional virtual staging service like PhotoUp that works with advanced software and experienced designers to create stunning real estate images.
PhotoUp specializes in photorealist, affordable VS services with a fast turnaround time of 24-48 hours.
Additionally, the virtually staged images are high-resolution, optimized for the web, and ready for use on your MLS or your single property websites.
Quick and Easy Order Process
The order process is super quick and easy. Here’s how it works:
Step 1. Upload Your Images
Sign up for a free PhotoUp account, and upload the images of the space you want staged.
Step 2. Select Furniture
Select furniture and decor from our professionally designed library.
Step 3. Approve & Download Your Images
Within 24 hours, we’ll send you low-resolution proofs of each digitally staged image for you to approve. In a few more hours, we’ll send your high-resolution images to download.
PhotoUp Virtual Staging Demo
For more details, check out our virtual staging uploader demo or visit our blog post on how to do virtual home staging online:
It’s really that easy! But that’s not all…
PhotoUp Offers More Than Virtual Staging!
We offer so much more than just virtual staging! We also offer other real estate marketing services, such as:
- Real estate photo editing
- Single property websites
- Property flyers
- House portraits
- Floor plans
- And more!
We have everything you need to create impressive real estate photography that will impress clients and sell listings faster at higher rates!
So, what are you waiting for?
Sign up for a free PhotoUp today, and let our expert team of designers help you create stunning real estate images in less than 48 hours!
For a limited time, we even offer 10 free credits you can use for any of our services when signing up for an account.
We hope this blog post helped you realize the benefits of virtual staging to boost your real estate marketing. If you enjoyed reading this post, you may also want to check out the following resources:
