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Virtual staging has grown in popularity because of its many benefits and affordability. 

Nearly 30% of real estate professionals now rely on virtual staging to sell homes quickly and for higher prices. 

In this post, virtual staging real estate: the ultimate guide to stunning photos — you’ll learn what virtual staging is, its many uses, and its strong benefits. 

Let’s start by explaining what is virtual staging?

What Is Virtual Staging for Real Estate?

Before and after virtual staging by PhotoUp
Before and After Virtual Staging by PhotoUp

Preparing a home for sale by rearranging furniture, redecorating areas, and making repairs and updates — all to help it look its best for the market — is called staging

Today’s advanced photo editing technology takes staging online, making it easier and more cost-effective to achieve the same results — virtually.  

Virtual staging skillfully edits photos of the property to make it look stunning and highly appealing to potential buyers.

With virtual staging, you can change such things as:

  • Furniture, decor, and wall hangings 
  • Flooring, carpeting, and cabinetry
  • The colors of walls or eliminate wallpaper
  • Update window treatments
  • You can even make virtual repairs!

Still, some agents worry that virtual staging is dishonest — an effort to try to fool buyers. This is simply not the case.

An agent makes it clear on the listing that the home has been virtually staged and most agents show the before and after photos

Rather than being a dishonest trick, virtual staging is a modern, affordable, and flexible way to show a home’s full potential by stimulating the imaginations of potential buyers and presenting them with a range of style options.  

Why Use Virtual Staging?

Virtual staging helps sell homes by making every room look like the ones you’d find in a magazine. This technology can make any property look amazing and extremely appealing. 

Experienced agents know that for a property to sell faster and for a higher price, they need to ensure that the home’s first impression is powerful and helps potential buyers emotionally connect with the home.

As you’ll see from the below statistics, there are many reasons to start using virtual staging:

  • Today, buyers start online — 97% of buyers begin their search online, and you have to catch a buyer’s attention quickly
  • Faster sales — homes that are staged sell 75% faster than those that are not
  • Stronger sales prices – 83% of staged properties sell for the asking price or above
  • All for less effort and cost — you can virtually furnish an entire room for just dollars the cost of traditional staging

And for your reference, here are a few samples of virtual staging — what is virtual staging in real estate (examples included).

Now that we’ve explained the how’s and why’s of virtual staging, let’s talk about some of the overlooked benefits of virtual staging.

Fast & Affordable

Virtual Staging Service

Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.

5 Overlooked Benefits of Virtual Staging

Before and after virtual staging by PhotoUp
Before and After Virtual Staging by PhotoUp

Let’s dive deeper and talk about 5 often-overlooked benefits of virtual staging for real estate. 

1. Speed and Ease to Market

Time to market is an important consideration in our insanely-paced real estate market. Sellers and their agents want to list a home for sale as quickly and easily as possible.

Virtual staging makes this possible:

  • There’s no need to rent or move heavy furniture around
  • Repairs and updates can be done nearly instantly online, allowing the house to be listed now while the actual work unfolds
  • Turnaround times for virtual staging are typically just a few days

2. Design Flexibility 

Virtual staging allows for tremendous design flexibility. With physical staging, you’re limited to only one design style.

Digital staging allows buyers to explore various style options for the same room, thereby also allowing the chance to sell the home’s versatility.   

For example:

  • Will your entertainment center fit in your great room? 
  • How will new window treatments look? 
  • Will a buyer’s preferred design theme work in the space?
  • How will the yard look with a pool and patio area?

So as you see, buyers can experiment with various colors, styles, and furnishings all online and with minimal work and cost.

3. Virtual Staging Is Easy and Cost-Effective  

Virtual staging is cost-efficient. There isn’t the need to spend the time, energy, and money having a home staged traditionally.

Usually, the price for one virtually staged room is about 95% cheaper than actual staging.

Also, an added benefit is that virtual staging for real estate is easier on the sellers. It costs less, often from $20 per image, and isn’t as disruptive as traditional staging.

Plus, your sellers will thank you for not having turned their house upside down.

4. Using Virtual Staging to Declutter and Depersonalize a Space 

Virtual staging for real estate
Before and After Virtual Staging by PhotoUp

A cluttered house filled with years of accumulated items is a real estate agent’s nightmare. 

With virtual staging, you can easily remove unsightly items or clutter:

  • Remove dated furniture and decor
  • Make a framed closet look organized
  • Eliminate unwanted objects from view
  • Take highly personal items such as photos or family items out of the picture

So, virtual staging is the easiest way to declutter and depersonalize any space to show its full potential to buyers. 

5. Gain the Advantages of a Strong Online Presence 

Virtual staging for real estate simply creates the strongest professional online presence for any property: 

  • Stunning, perfectly edited photos
  • Each image branded with your business information
  • Each room of the home, including the exterior, looks flawless

And as smart agents know, having high-quality virtual staging in your real estate marketing toolkit can give you an edge over other agents and make you look great in the eyes of sellers. 

Fast & Affordable

Virtual Staging Service

Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.

Which Rooms Should Be Virtually Staged?

While there are many good reasons to use virtual staging for the entire home, this isn’t always necessary.

But which rooms should you focus on then?

  • The living room — a recent NAR survey found that 86% of buyers feel a staged living room is “important” or “very important”
  • The master bedroom – the same NAR survey found that 84% of buyers thought the master bedroom was important or very important to virtually stage 
  • The kitchen — 68% of buyers claim that the kitchen is a room they want to see virtually staged
  • The dining room — entertaining and family dinners are important to many buyers, so don’t forget to virtually stage the dining room

If you want even more information, read about virtual room staging before and after (top 7 most popular rooms).

Start Using Virtual Staging Today With PhotoUp

Well-staged homes sell quickly in any market, but we know that finding and selecting the right virtual staging service can be confusing. 

That’s where we come in. Let PhotoUp’s virtual staging impress your clients and help you sell listings.

Our comprehensive services include:

PhotoUp makes it easy too! In just 3 easy steps, you’ll get stunning, virtually staged rooms:

1) Upload your property photos.
2) Select from our professional library of design styles and furnishings.
3) Within a day or two, we’ll send you proofs for approval and download.

Photoup Virtual Staging Uploader Tutorial

For more details, check out our virtual staging uploader video tutorial:

As you can see, it’s as easy as 1-2-3!

Sign up for a free PhotoUp account today, and let us improve your marketing results and grow your business!

To recap, in this post, we provided you with a detailed overview of virtual staging for real estate: the ultimate guide to stunning photos. We hope you found it useful.

If you did, you may also want to check out the following, related, resources:

Stina Pettersson

Professional Blogger

Stina is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, and professional blogger who's passionate about real estate photo editing, being outdoors with her pup, and sweaty gym sessions. She loves the written word and has been writing for publications like Forbes and Thrive Global. Originally from Sweden, she's called South Florida her home since 2013.

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