It’s a whole new world in this record-breaking sellers’ market, and that includes the digital world, with the growing trend of virtual staging software entering the picture. For sellers, it’s become the better option to investing thousands of dollars into live property staging and making time-consuming repairs, both indoors and out. 

What is it exactly? Virtual staging is computer-aided graphic design technology that allows potential buyers to reimagine any size space in the house or on the property. 

The graphic designer starts with a professional photograph of a room (either vacant or lived in), then creates an extremely realistic image of that room by changing some of its elements, such as flooring, paint shades, window treatments, furnishings, and more. The entire process is fast and convenient! And, in addition to home sales, virtual staging can be used for home renovations, redecorating, and hardscaping and landscaping.

Here are some more detailed benefits of the convenience of virtual staging:

It saves time and money.

Virtual staging eliminates the need to budget in the funds to hire a professional staging company, which can be expensive. Here’s a closer look: virtual stagers charge an average of $30 per room, whereas traditional staging costs anywhere from $300 to $600 for the initial design consultation, plus up to $600 per month for each staged room while it’s listed. Also, it only takes a day or two from the time the photograph is submitted to when the virtual stager creates his magic, versus the much longer, more inconvenient process of a traditional stager – from the consultation to moving out your furniture and moving theirs in.

It’s more convenient.

Think of how much a traditional stager can disrupt your life and take up your valuable time: you first have to schedule a time for a consultation, decide on one style for the rooms you’re staging (instead of the multiple options a virtual stager offers), they must haul out your furniture, bring theirs into your home and arrange everything, then move it all out again when you sell. 

It’s flexible.

With all of that said above about the moving in and out of furniture, virtual staging allows you to keep your current furniture where they are, with only virtually adding in décor elements to update or warm the room … actually, the image of the room. And you don’t have to stick to one staging arrangement or color palette; with virtual staging, you can experiment with different furniture placement, lighting, paint colors, and more.

It allows for more creativity.

This is an especially important benefit because it gives clients the ability to visualize multiple design themes. Virtual staging opens the door to more style options, functions, and layouts for the same room to showcase the versatility of your home to appeal to potential buyers’ wide range of tastes.

To sit down and discuss your plans to buy or sell a home, please call one of us at the Sands Realty Group at 843.839.4878.