Potential – that is what the real estate market is all about. Buyers need to see the potential of each space, how it can be maximized, how their furniture could fit into it, and how it can be utilized in ways the buyer has not yet considered. But it can be hard to judge how a dining room table or sectional can fit into a space, or hard to visualize how a sun room can be transformed into an airy office. To help your buyers understand the potential of a space, try virtual staging. It’s the low-cost, highly effective way show buyers everything their new home could be.
What is Staging?
Physical staging is the act of arranging furniture and décor in a room to show off its best attributes. It helps buyers see how their own furniture can fit into the space, and how items can be arranged for maximum flow and efficiency. Physical staging requires manual labour and there is a cost if a professional designer or stager is used to arrange the space and rent the furniture.
Physical staging adds costs to the already expensive process of selling a home. However, virtual staging can help control costs, freeing up marketing dollars to help sell the home while still showing its full potential.
Virtual staging uses computer images to show off a space to its best advantage. The simulation places furniture and décor digitally into the room and can be used to show improvements that have yet to be undertaken such as fresh paint or home repairs. Virtual staging is a digital service that does not require manual labour or the rental of furniture and accessories.
Virtual Staging is a Modern Advantage
It is a proven fact that staging helps to sell homes, but when you have a large inventory to sell, physically staging all those homes is not practical from a efficiency or financial standpoint. Virtual staging is the fast and easy way to show off each home’s potential and to keep your inventory moving.
Disclosure
Real estate is an industry built on trust; Realtors should disclose when a home has been virtually, as opposed to physically, staged.
When to Use Physical Staging
New home construction or homes in excellent condition benefit the most from physical staging. These are homes for buyers that want a turnkey sale and want to simply move their own furniture in. They are ready to look at homes in person and are ready to make an offer when the right home presents itself. The cost of physical staging for these clients is always a worthwhile investment.
When to Use Virtual Staging
Not every seller has the time or money to refresh their home for the market, and some homes are sold as investment properties. In these instances, buyers need to know the home’s end potential. When you let a buyer know a fixer upper or investment property has been virtually staged, they can come to you with requests to see the space with different paint colours or furniture configurations. They want to know how far their investment can go and which homes deserve an in-person visit. Virtual staging for these homes is a valuable tool that saves you and the buyer time.
When to Use Both
Not everyone likes the neutral tones used to promote a home for sale, so while it is important for your sellers to remove traces of personality from the space, you can absolutely turn to virtual staging to show the home in several different interior styles. This broadens the reach of potential buyers. You can even offer the service of showing the home with the buyer’s style of furniture and desired colours virtually imprinted.
The Bottom Line
Both physical and virtual staging have a place in the Realtor’s toolbox. Realtors that care about their clients use the tools available to them to manage expectations, be that a perfectly laid out home or showing the home as it could be with some investment. The bottom line is to show the home in its best light as a turnkey property or one the buyer can put their own unique stamp on, with of course, full disclosure of if the home will present as shown online.
