How virtual staging could replace styling when selling homes online
Given how many Aussie buyers research or buy homes online, photos offering a virtually styled (or ‘staged’) home seems to make a lot of sense. Would you consider it?
Residz Team 2 min read
Professional styling can increase the sold price of your home by between 7.5% and 12.5%, according to a survey by L J Hooker of its top real estate agents in Australia. And styling a home can sell it 3 x faster, according to Home Staging Association UK & Ireland.
But,
- styling is expensive
- styling takes time and energy
- styling can trap you into spending more. If the home doesn’t sell on auction day, you are charged more fees to continue to use any hired furniture.
This is why ‘virtual staging’ as it’s known in the U.S. could be a good option for some Australian home sellers. Given how many Aussie buyers research or buy homes online, photos of a virtually styled (or ‘staged’) home seems to make a lot of sense. Would you consider it?
Photo edit your home
Instead of hiring a company to bring furniture and accessories into the home, virtual staging (or virtual styling) uses technology to style rooms and garden areas. Using photo editing software, virtual stage designers make empty rooms more inviting or cluttered ones more spacious. Best of all, virtual staging photos cost under $50 a month, a fraction of the cost of a stylist.
The magic of technology
Looking at virtual staging websites there appear to be a number of options.
For styling images you can:
- Add furniture and decorative items into a photo of an empty or partly furnished room.
- Remove items in a photo of a room, and add in furniture and accessories.
- Make daytime photos appear to have been taken at dusk.
Taking a step further
You don’t have to stop at furnishing. To show a home’s potential, you could virtually stage renovations. Obviously for legal and ethical reasons you would have to declare honestly and openly that virtually staged photos were artistic impressions, but the technology does allow you to:
- Change interior walls, floors, cabinets, ceilings and more.
- Change exterior walls, trim, and door colours.
- Change landscaping, or add in a pool.
Quick turnaround
To get virtually staged photos, you send in quality photos of empty or partially furnished rooms, or outdoor areas. Companies offer menus of inspiration, with themes such as ‘modern farmhouse’, ‘elegant vintage’, or ‘mid-century modern glam’. The photos are edited and returned within 12-24 hours.
Pros and cons
Virtual staging seems to me a great option for people selling a rental property where a stylist may not be able to change furnishings, or if hoping to sell a property solely from online images. However, it may backfire if people physically inspect a home after seeing virtually staged photos. You never want a home to appear worse in real life.
Gets my vote
When selling our family home years ago we contracted the services of a stylist. She put little green sticker dots on furniture ‘allowed’ to stay in the house. The bulk of it was stored or thrown out. It was a huge undertaking and we spent a small fortune. Then, the house didn’t sell on auction day. If virtual staging had been around, I’d have jumped at ‘elegant vintage’ and banked the savings.
Images: Stuccco website