Here’s Why You May Want to Go Virtual When Staging Your Home

For many homeowners planning to list their homes, presenting their property at its very best is often one of their main concerns. Staging can be helpful in getting a home sold for top dollar. Whether done in whole or in part, there are advantages to staging a house before presenting it to buyers.

In addition, if a home is sitting empty, staging can help potential buyers to better visualize what it may look like once furnished and decorated. While there can be advantages to showing a completely empty home—rooms can look more spacious, for example—there are also obvious advantages to showing buyers how a home can look when fully furnished and decorated.

For a number of reasons, virtual home staging has become a popular choice to fit this need. But what exactly does that mean and how does it differ from traditional staging?

Staging meets technology

Traditional staging is a process familiar to most people. A professional home stager physically selects, purchases or leases, and arranges the furniture in a house. That means any existing furniture in the house needs to be removed or rearranged. In addition to furniture and décor costs, there can be the cost of painting, delivery and labor.

Depending on the extent of staging necessary or desired, it can take a team of people to bring the designer’s vision into reality. While time-consuming and comparatively expensive, it can be a real useful tool for selling a house.

With an increasing number of buyers looking online, virtual staging has become increasingly popular. In this process, a photographer takes photos of empty rooms of the house. A designer then uses editing software to add furnishings and décor to the photos. The result is the look of a professionally decorated home. It can be a cost-effective way of professionally staging a home, making it look more appealing to buyers shopping online.

The obvious advantage to virtual staging is that the same look is achieved at a fraction of the cost and considerably less time. Typically, a house can be virtually staged in a day or two. There aren’t the physical resources necessary with traditional staging.

To sum up, sellers are opting for virtual staging because:

• It is cost-effective, since it requires photos and software rather than furniture, décor and workers.
• It takes less time and effort. There’s no physical buying, transporting and placing of furniture.
• It’s easier to customize when necessary, if the homeowner has a particular design need. For example, a home that has a unique architectural design, floor plan or style may more easily be staged virtually.
• It’s easier to incorporate different home-styling options, décor, colors and furnishings.
• Virtual staging photos can make for powerful online marketing at a time when more and more buyers are starting their search online.