Are you ready to sell your home, apartment, or office by staging it?
You might be prepared to use professional staging services to bring your property to life, attract buyers, and sell it for a higher price. But, the real question is should you stage real in person or virtually? What are the distinctions, and how much do they cost?
We’re here to settle the dilemma of virtual staging vs real staging.
Page Contents
What Is Staging In Real Estate?
Staging transforms an empty room, which might feel chilly and uninviting, into a captivating setting that purchasers want to see.
Instead of exhibiting an empty space or one with outmoded furnishings, home or office staging adds furniture, decorations, accessories, art, and even appliances to give the area a ready-to-live-in appearance and let a buyer understand the full potential of the place.
A well-staged area is more inviting, larger, and warmer, and it raises the perceived worth of your property.
How Does Home Staging Work?
Home staging isn’t a brand-new concept.
People began home staging in the 1970s on the West Coast, but it has since spread across the country. “When determining whether to check on a house, home purchasers examine three key factors: the location, the condition, and the price,” according to the Wall Street Journal Guide To The Property.
The condition becomes the most significant factor because a homeowner can’t modify the location and wants to stick to their guns on the price. Most homeowners wouldn’t exhibit property without at least cleaning it up, but staging a home entails additional, more subtle changes that can make a home more appealing to potential buyers.
Home and office staging can change the entire feel, making it more inviting. With just some well-placed furniture or decorations in otherwise empty living quarters, real estate will entice buyers to showcase the property at its best.
What Is Virtual Staging?
Virtual staging is a collection of digital tools that allow you to show off your home without doing any actual staging.
This lets a buyer look at a home online to get a sense of how it would feel by taking a virtual tour. Simple things like unappealing paint color or a disorganized furniture layout can turn off a potential buyer. As a result, virtual staging helps you present your house in the best possible light to visitors searching online.
The nicest part about virtual staging is that you can do it all without breaking the bank for every room on the property.
Pros Of Virtual Staging
Cost-Effective
Unlike traditional staging, professional virtual staging typically starts at $75 per image, with reductions available for larger groups of images or many viewpoints of the same room.
Time Efficient
When you need to advertise a home quickly online and have photographs ready to email or post, this can be a huge help. One of the reasons virtual staging has become so popular and effective at times, like the COVID-19 outbreak because it eliminates the need for individuals to enter your space to bring in furniture physically.
Wide Variety of Design Options
Traditional staging would entail reversing the work, removing the staged furniture, and replacing it with fresh pieces. It’s as simple as repainting the photographs in a different style in virtual staging.
It also guarantees that you present your unit in the most appealing light for potential purchasers.
Flexible & Easier to Change
Have you changed your mind about the staging design? When changing a target market from modern to sophisticated or upping the price of a house, this can be highly effective.
Realtors can use CGI to market properties in various ways based on the preferences of the target demographic.
For example, with kindergartens and schools nearby, there is a suitable location for a young family with children. However, it can be practically staged to appeal to the values and preferences of those who will be interested in purchasing it.
Enhanced Visual Appeal
When you promote empty rooms, they don’t leave much to the imagination and fail to attract consumers. In a world where 80 percent of house sales begin online, you must do all possible to make your listing stand out and entice potential buyers.
Virtual staging aids in persuading potential buyers by displaying a home that is a visual picture of how it would seem in use.
Showcases a Unit’s Complete Potential
It’s difficult for a buyer to get a sense of a room during an online viewing because empty units can feel frigid.
On the other hand, would-be purchasers aren’t interested in seeing the present owner’s photos or décor. Virtual staging provides a wonderful middle ground: it makes a space feel warm and inviting while also allowing the customer to visualize themselves in the apartment.
Part of Digital Marketing Strategy
It creates photos, virtual walk-through tours, sliders, banners, and floorplans that are instantly ready for the web or email. Virtual staged area 360 virtual walk-throughs are now available, bringing the best of virtual staging to the surface.
You Might Also Be Interested In: Things Home Owners Should Know About Virtual Staging Their Property
Cons of Virtual Staging
Hard to Manage a Client’s Expectation
The same principle applies when virtual remodeling, a component of virtual staging that entails repairing and updating the space before virtual furniture is put, is used to repair damages or replace walls.
To avoid being duped by the seller’s photographs, a buyer should be aware of any faults or required repairs that are not visible in the fresh virtual staging shots.
False Impressions
Professional design can seem fantastic, but purchasers may be frustrated if they cannot replicate anything similar.
A realtor may become overly enamored with style references and the range of 3D furniture and décor models available, ordering a virtual look that does not accurately reflect the profile of a property.
For example, a high-end interior design for a low-budget flat, where the significant benefit is the low cost. This will most likely deter potential buyers.
Virtual Staging May Mislead Clients
Designers who know how to do virtual staging can use a virtual renovation to hide the house’s flaws. For example, if a virtual renovation is employed in conjunction with staging, the home may appear to be too excellent.
Even if the purchasers know the property’s issues, they may grossly underestimate them. The only option is to correctly mark all of the photographs and display the original photographs alongside the virtually repaired and staged photographs.
Because the purchasers need to know if the property’s repairs will set them back a lot of money.
What Is Real Staging?
Physical staging, often known as home staging, entails hiring a home staging professional to help you prepare your property or house for sale before you put it on the market.
A home staging firm would usually bring all of the essential furnishings and décor to highlight the home’s best characteristics. As a result, home stagers concentrate on layout and design features to make the property desirable and inviting to potential purchasers who have come to look at it.
As a result, physical staging aids purchasers in imagining themselves living in the home. Physical staging, when done correctly, can assist in minimizing problems that would otherwise turn off a potential buyer.
Pros of Real Staging
Great First Impression
Traditional staging has the biggest advantage of allowing purchasers to come to the house, view it properly arranged, and walk through it. It creates a great first impression. The buyer may visualize themselves in the room, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Helps Client See And Visualize Living In The Unit
For people who become interested in a house after seeing it online and request a visit, real staging delivers a complete experience.
Typically, staging items are rented for the duration of a home’s sale. When potential buyers see the property in person, they will see exactly what they saw on the website. Customers can imagine themselves living there. However, they know that staging items do not come with the property. Even if they could, they aren’t included in the price.
Buyers may have more faith in their real estate agent if they see actual staging. And when it comes to something as important as purchasing a home, this is critical.
Helps To Make Space Feel Larger
A home staging firm would usually bring all of the essential furnishings and décor to highlight the home’s best characteristics.
As a result, home stagers concentrate on layout and design features to make the property desirable and inviting to potential purchasers who have come to look at it.
The real staging allows the room for the visitors to check, making the space feel larger with practical interior design and placing of the furniture.
Real-time Buyer Experience
Certain consumers prefer physically staged homes because they give potential buyers a hands-on experience. Properties have a real chance of developing an emotional bond with your customers.
Real staging aids in the better visualization of the home, and in person, walk-through experience allows real-time buyer experience that maximizes prospects of selling.
Design Experience
Experienced stagers have years, if not decades, of expertise and a profound grasp of how to use the proper furniture, art, and colors to bring out the greatest qualities of your room. To entice the type of buyer, you’re looking for.
Most seasoned realtors have their preferred home staging businesses and are familiar with the real estate staging process. Some large real estate firms have their own home-staging departments, complete with stylists and photographers. The debate over virtual vs. real staging isn’t a hot topic for them.
Keeping existing business processes is more realistic than decreasing costs in this scenario.
Cons of Real Staging
Higher Cost
Staging projects typically begin about $3,500 and can range considerably higher, depending on the space requirements and staging needs. They are generally done in 3-month cycles but can be prolonged as needed.
Real staging necessitates the hiring experienced home stagers and the rental of furniture and other items. Property may require repainting or small repairs. Smaller real estate firms may be able to afford it for one or two homes at a time, but staging several properties in this manner is unfeasible.
Lack Of Variety In Designs
When an agency uses the same real estate staging company for an extended period or has its own staging department, all of their properties may start to appear the same.
The majority of stagers apply the same stylistic techniques to all of the spaces they furnish. But, of course, their stockpiles of furniture and props aren’t inexhaustible. Realtors may end up with entire catalogs loaded with extremely similar photographs for all of their homes in this manner.
That’s not good, especially when a fresh touch is required to emphasize a location’s outstanding attributes.
Hard To Achieve The Desired Outcome
Some properties require basic repairs before they seem attractive enough to attract purchasers from photographs.
As a result, real-life staging does not always produce the expected outcomes. Or it is, but it is prohibitively expensive. That can be a huge letdown for realtors who invest a significant portion of their marketing budget on home staging services to improve their chances of selling unsightly properties.
Takes Longer Turnaround Time
Although good staging businesses can complete a staging assignment in a matter of days, it takes longer than virtual staging.
This can take considerably longer if the property requires any repairs or painting before it can be staged. The furniture and appliances must be removed after the home is sold.
The realtor must wait a long time after placing an order with a real staging firm for everything to be completed. Selection of style and appropriate staging objects, transportation, layout, photography, and editing are all part of the process.
The more time it takes to produce visual elements for a property listing, the more objections the seller will have.
Constant Upkeep
The furniture and other interior applications have to be there until sold off the property. The staged space and furniture must be cleaned and kept looking as good as they did on staging day.
This requires lots of effort and is time-consuming.
Does Staging Help Sell A House?
Comparing staged vs unstaged homes, according to one study, staged homes can sell two to three times faster than unstaged homes, with average offers increasing by up to 15%.
It further states that 28% of buyers considered their home purchasing experience more accessible than expected, 83% of buyer’s agents claimed staging helped them see the home better, and 38% of buyers were more inclined to walk through the house.
Arranging furniture makes it easier for purchasers to see themselves living in the property. For example, real estate brokers estimate that it boosts the value by 1-10 percent.
Staging is the ultimate weapon to utilize in your favor since it allows purchasers to picture and plan how they want to use the space.
Is Home Staging Worth It?
Home staging demands an initial outlay that may or may not pay off, but it frequently does.
According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors
Staging your home can also help you sell it faster. Houses that have been staged spend between 33 percent and 50 percent less time on the market, according to HomeAdvisor. That means not just obtaining the proceeds of a home sale sooner but also paying less money on extra costs like a rental or storage unit.
So, is staging worth it? Yes! It is.
Virtual Staging vs real staging: Which Is Right For You?
While both traditional and digital staging alternatives appear excellent, they have significant benefits and drawbacks. For example, you may prefer one over the other depending on your location, money, available space, and target audience.
Digital home staging wins against traditional home staging with a quick, cheaper, more flexible approach to property presentation for smaller budgets, smaller areas, and lower-cost units.
Traditional staging may lead the way for higher budgets and larger homes by allowing prospective buyers to experience the entire property’s potential during a physical tour.
