Virtual Staging is Finally Here, and It’s Perfect for Houseflippers!
What is Virtual Staging?
Have you heard of virtual staging? While it may sound like a futuristic tool for realtors, it’s actually an accessible and inexpensive way to help sell your investment properties. By showing potential buyers a “lifestyle” photo instead of the blank walls of empty rooms, you’re more likely to trigger an emotional reaction in them which means more offers! Selling agents always suggest staging a property for this reason, but renting appropriate furniture and accessories can be both expensive and a lot of work. Virtual staging, however, uses only digital tools to create these decorated, furnished views of your property. A talented graphic designer can add furniture and accessories to flawlessly match the look and feel of the house. Modern techniques include shadowing and perspective adjustments that make the edited photos indistinguishable from real life! You can even find editors who can adjust the lighting in the photo to match a time of day you want to show off to your potential buyers. While early attempts at virtual staging from last decade may have missed the mark, today’s high quality computer graphics make it hard to tell the images are edited at all.
Why Virtual Staging is Perfect for Houseflippers
While we know that any staging helps generate offers, there are some downsides to classic staging that virtual staging improves upon:
- Virtual staging costs less than traditional staging and will be billed as a fixed cost per image. Traditional staging is more expensive and typically charges you for each month you have the furniture in the home . . . nevermind labor and design costs.
- You don’t need to worry about the availability of furniture or goods from a virtual stager. “Copy and paste” functionality gives them an infinite warehouse.
- You can request any style of furniture to match the house’s style and feature the improvements you’ve made. For example if you added a deck to a property, you can virtually add in a grill and patio furniture so buyers can picture the picnics they’ll be having. Maybe you’ve flipped a mid-century modern apartment. Virtual stagers will have just the right furnishings for that home while a traditional stager might not.
- There will be no wear-and-tear on the house from a move-in or move-out. That’s a win for you and for the buyers. Imagine selling a house and then having to pay to have it emptied. With virtual staging, it’s good to go.
- Virtual staging is fast. Houseflippers know the value of time, and most virtual stagers can turn around a photo for you in 1-2 business days.
Virtual Staging Case Study: Charles in Boston
Charles is one of RFG’s successful borrowers from Boston, Massachusetts. He does a great job with his properties and turns over several flips per year. That would be a lot of furniture movement and organization if he were to stage all of them, so we reached out to him to try the virtual staging services from VirtualStagingSolutions.com. Using only the phone on his camera, Charles took a few photos of his most recent investment property which was ready to sell, but empty. Here’s how they turned out:
Charles’ “Before” Photo of the Bedroom:
Virtual Staging Solutions’ “After” Photo:
Charles’ “Before” Photo of the Dining Room:
Virtual Staging Solutions’ “After” Photo:
Can you believe it!? As you can see, the final product is much more inviting and polished. Buyers will be much more interested in the home and hopefully Charles will make a quick sale. To see more of Virtual Staging Solutions work, visit their portfolio page here. We enjoyed working with them and have been impressed with both the quality of their images and speed with which they can produce them. Virtual staging might have the highest ROI of any improvement you make!