How to Virtually Stage Your Home

Definition of Virtual Staging

Virtual staging is the process of adding virtual furniture, decor, and other virtual elements to an empty or unfurnished space using digital editing techniques.

The purpose of virtual staging is to make a vacant space look more appealing, inviting, and realistic to potential buyers without needing to physically furnish it, as is done in traditional home staging.

According to recent data, traditional staging helps real estate agents or homeowners sell their properties faster and for a higher price. Studies have shown that 85% of staged homes sell for 6–25% more than non-staged homes.

Also, a 2021 survey looked into 4,600 staged property sales and found that 73% sold nine days faster than the average.

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While these statistics are promising, physically staging a home is expensive and time-consuming. Virtual staging offers a more convenient alternative with similar benefits at a fraction of the cost.

How Virtual Staging Works

There are several virtual or digital staging approaches, such as hiring a professional designer, using a virtual staging app yourself, or using Virtual Staging AI.

Professional designers will use virtual staging software or 3D design and modeling tools to create custom renders of a staged space based on a photo of the empty room.

These virtual staging software come pre-built with various 3D models of furniture and decor pieces in different styles and allow designers (or you) to adjust the size, position, and angle of the items they place within the image.

These tools also let you apply various effects and filters to enhance the image quality.

Virtual staging with AI is a type of virtual staging that takes things a step further. It uses artificial intelligence to autonomously adjust the size and alignment of digital furniture, its perspective, lighting, and wall colors.

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It can even declutter your rooms to render your space the most convincing for prospective buyers and produce attractive real estate photos based on its features and your preferences.

Benefits of Virtual Staging AI

Virtual Staging AI is the best virtual staging solution for real estate professionals and photographers.

It offers many benefits over physical staging and virtual staging with a professional designer, such as:

#1 Lower Cost

Virtual Staging AI is much cheaper than hiring a professional designer who can charge hundreds of dollars per rendered image. It’s also orders of magnitude more affordable than traditional staging, which has a median cost of $675, but that can go as high as $30,000, depending on the property. On top of that, you must add the fees for professionally-taken real estate photos.

With Virtual Staging AI, in the worst of cases, you get an unlimited number of renders of up to 6 staged rooms (6 photos) per month for only $12/month. At this rate, it costs only $2 to stage each room.

For instance, it only takes about $12 to stage a small home with a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. Without counting a professional photographer’s fees (but you can always use a smartphone), that’s over 50 times cheaper than the median staging cost.

#2 Faster Turnaround Time (TAT)

Once hired, designers can sometimes take days or weeks to deliver the final images. That time doubles if you’re unsatisfied and need any revisions.

Virtual Staging AI, on the other hand, can generate high-quality images in 10 seconds or less, allowing you to market your properties sooner and more effectively.

Best of all, you can run as many renders as you want in the same amount of time, making Virtual Staging AI a much faster alternative than hiring a professional designer.

#3 More Convenience

Virtual Staging AI is much more convenient than hiring a professional designer, who may require you to send professional photos of your space and wait for their feedback and revisions.

Virtual Staging AI works with almost any good-quality picture taken on any modern smartphone. With Virtual Staging AI, you can also preview and edit your virtual staging projects online and download high-resolution images whenever you want.

#4 Unlimited Renders and Cloud Storage

Virtual Staging AI gives you unlimited access to its library of furniture and decor styles and its AI-powered rendering engine.

Virtual rendering by Virtual Staging AI

A key perk is that you can create as many renders as you want and experiment with different styles and settings until you find the perfect match for your space. It’s like hiring a professional virtual staging company and getting unlimited revisions.

This feature allows you to create custom renders for each client you show a property to, making for a much more personalized and rewarding experience. You can also store all your images in the cloud and access them anytime and anywhere.

Preparation

Now that you know the benefits of Virtual Staging AI, let’s explore how virtually staging a home using this tool works. The first step is to prepare the spaces you plan to stage. The second step is to run photos of these spaces through Virtual Staging AI.

Here are some tips to help you prepare your property for the best possible results.

Empty and Clean the Space

Before taking a photo and adding 3D furniture, you must empty and clean the space you want to stage virtually. Ensure all surfaces, floors, and windows are spotless. Remove any personal items, clutter, or unwanted physical furniture for best results. Doing so will give the impression of a well-maintained and cared-for property and make it easier for the AI to render the virtual staging.

If you don’t have time or resources to empty and clean the space, you can use Virtual Staging AI’s new decluttering feature, which allows you to remove unwanted furniture and objects from your space with just a few clicks.

Virtual rendering by Virtual Staging AI

This feature is handy for homeowners who want to show off their property in different furnishing styles before moving out and emptying the house. It’s also ideal for real estate agents working with fully furnished properties instead of empty and vacant homes.

For example, you can also use it to create an empty space from a picture of a furnished room if you want to change the style or layout of the furniture.

Decluttering an image before staging is free — you can download the empty/decluttered and staged images.

Take Photos

The next step is to take photos of the space you want to stage. You can use any device with a camera as long as the images are clear, bright, and in focus.

Here are some tips to help you take better photos:

• Use natural light: The best time to take photos is during the day when there’s plenty of natural light. Avoid using flash or artificial light, which can create shadows, glare, or distort colors.
• Use a tripod: A tripod can help stabilize your camera and avoid blurry or tilted photos. If you don’t have a tripod, you can use a flat surface, such as a table or a shelf, to support your camera.
• Use a wide-angle lens: Wide-angle lenses help capture more of the space and make it look more spacious and attractive.
• Take multiple photos: Take numerous photos of the space from different angles and positions, covering all the walls, corners, and features. Doing so will give you more options and flexibility when choosing the best property photos for virtual staging.

Using Virtual Staging AI

Once you’ve prepared your space and taken photos of it, you can use Virtual Staging AI to create stunning images that impress prospective buyers and sell your properties faster.

There are two ways to use Virtual Staging AI: through the free trial and any of the paid subscription plans. The following section describes each option in turn.

Free Trial

Virtual Staging AI offers a generous free trial that lets you create unlimited renders of any number of staged rooms. You don’t need to create an account or sign up to use the free trial service.

Instead, you can start uploading images from the home page and process them immediately, and you can download the output staged rooms as high-quality images.

However, the free trial does have two fundamental limitations:

• First, all output images are watermarked.
• Second, you’re limited to only two types of rooms (bedrooms and living rooms) and one furniture style (the standard package). The image on the left is the original photo of a fully furnished living space. The image on the right shows that same room after decluttering and adding new furniture with Virtual Staging AI.

That said, you get unlimited access to the brand-new declutter feature and can even download high-quality image files of the decluttered space before adding new furniture (albeit watermarked).

Same room as above after decluttering with Virtual Staging AI.

Paid Subscription: Step-By-Step Instructions

To use Virtual Staging AI to its full potential, you must sign up for a paid subscription service. There are four subscription plans with different account limits and prices.

We’ll get into the details later, but all plans include unlimited renders, a 10-second TAT, and high-resolution downloads without a watermark. Most plans also include cloud storage.

To use the paid subscription service, follow these steps:

• Upload your photos: The first step is to upload the photos you took of the rooms you want to stage to the platform. The images should show clean, empty spaces. However, if you’re going to (or need to) remove an item in the picture, such as a piece of furniture you don’t want, you can use the new decluttering feature to create an empty canvas of a furnished room.
• Choose your style: Next, you must choose the type of room you’re staging so the AI knows what furniture to add. You can choose between bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms, bathrooms, and a home office. You can also choose from various furniture and decor styles, such as modern, classic, rustic, Scandinavian, etc.
• Let the AI do the rest: Once you’ve chosen your style, you can let the AI do the heavy lifting. The AI will analyze your photos and style, automatically rendering the most realistic and suitable staging for your space. You can generate as many variations as you want from any photo, but you’re limited in the number of images you can upload monthly, depending on your subscription plan.
• Download your images: Once the AI completes the rendering process, you can download your images in high resolution without any watermarks. You can also store your pictures in the cloud and access them anytime and anywhere.

Pricing Plans

Virtual Staging AI offers different subscription plans to suit your needs, whether you are a homeowner selling your property, a virtual stager, a real estate agent with multiple listings, or a real estate photographer offering services to real estate agencies. (Image Source)

Here are the pricing plans and the features that come with each:

Basic Plan

The basic plan is ideal for beginners (realtors or homeowners) who want to sell their property faster and for a higher price. It only lets you stage up to 6 photos per month. If you pay annually, the cost is only $12 per month. The plan includes:

• Access to all room types and furniture and decor design styles
• Unlimited renders and cloud storage
• High-resolution downloads
• Decluttering feature
• No watermark

Standard Plan

The standard plan is ideal for realtors who have a few listings and want to showcase a house in a different light to impress their clients and sell houses faster.

The standard plan costs $19 monthly when billed annually. The standard plan includes:

• All the features and benefits of the basic plan
• Increased limit of 25 photos per month
• Image storage on the cloud forever

Professional Plan

The professional plan is ideal for real estate photographers who offer virtual staging services to real estate agencies and want to deliver high-quality images to impress their clients and boost their reputation.

The professional plan costs $39 monthly when billed annually. The professional plan includes:

• All the features and benefits of the standard plan
• Increased limit of 100 photos per month
• 24/7 success manager

Enterprise Plan

The enterprise plan is ideal for large real estate agencies or franchises with many listings that want to use virtual staging to gain a competitive edge and dominate the market.

The enterprise plan costs $69 monthly when billed annually. The enterprise plan is customized to your needs and budget and includes:

• Premium support: 24/7 enterprise support with a personal success manager
• All the features and benefits of the professional plan
• Increased limit of 250 photos per month
• Custom integration
• API access

Which Virtual Staging AI Account Is Right for You?

Virtual staging is a powerful real estate marketing tool. It’s an efficient and cost-effective way for professionals and photographers to showcase their properties to potential home buyers in the best possible light, making them stand out in the highly competitive real estate market.

Virtual staging can help you sell your properties faster and for a higher price by making vacant spaces more appealing, inviting, and realistic to potential buyers.

Virtual Staging AI is one of the best virtual staging apps in this competitive market, as it offers many benefits over traditional staging methods, including:

• AI-powered real estate photography rendering
• Faster turnaround times
• More convenience
• Unlimited renders
• Cloud storage
• Lower cost

Virtual Staging AI also offers a unique decluttering feature that lets you remove real furniture and objects from your photos with just a few clicks. It creates a clean and neutral canvas for the app to work its magic on.

Using Virtual Staging AI is a smart choice for an easy and convenient virtual staging experience to make your online listings stand out. Try Virtual Staging AI for free now to create stunning virtual staging projects in minutes that impress your buyers and sell your properties faster.