Let’s discuss the pros and cons of virtual staging and home staging when you’re trying to sell a house.
Staging a home is one of the best real estate marketing tools that you have at your disposal when you’re selling a property. Buyers often struggle to imagine themselves living in an empty shell of a room or home. But if you can show potential buyers a warm, and inviting space that feels lived-in, then your chances of making a sale can improve drastically.
Home staging doesn’t rely on a buyer’s imagination. It does the work for them and helps them move towards a buying decision.
So, should you use a great virtual staging company or a home staging service when you’re trying to make a sale? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each.
Pros of Home Staging
Home staging means that you either hire a home staging company to stage your listing for you, or you gather up furniture, artwork, rugs, and various other home accessories, take them to the property, set them up when the home is ready for showing and then return the furniture to its rightful home once you make a sale.
Home staging is a great way to showcase a property for an open house. People get an immediate feel for what it would be like to live there. They can move around the space, decide where they would put their own furniture, and really picture their future lives in the home.
There’s no doubt that home staging is a very powerful weapon when it comes to marketing a listing; arguably the most powerful in all of the real estate. But the downsides are considerable.
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Cons of Home Staging
There’s no getting around the fact that home staging is both expensive and time-consuming. Either you’re driving around your area, sourcing different furniture, delivering items to the space, setting them up, and then paying a fee to keep them in that space until you make the sale. Or you’re hiring a home staging company who is going to release you from all the schlepping around but who’s going to charge a considerable fee for that service.
Typical home staging services can cost anywhere from $500-$1000 per home plus a monthly fee to keep the furniture in the house.
There’s simply no getting around the fact that it’s a lot of work and if your property doesn’t sell quickly, then the staging is going to quickly start eating into your profits.
Pros of Virtual Staging Companies
When we talk about virtual staging we’re referring to the process of using digital tools to stage a property for online marketing. You take pictures of the home that you’re selling and then use a virtual staging company or virtual staging app to place realistic virtual furniture in each room.
There are many advantages to using a virtual staging company or virtual staging app:
- It’s very affordable. Virtual staging with PhotoUp starts at just $20 per room.
- Tastefully curated virtual furniture sets make it easy to find a style to match any home.
- A room can be shot and virtually staged in a matter of hours, as opposed to days.
- You can choose not to do any work yourself by hiring a virtual staging company.
- You can virtually stage many properties at once.
- Real estate photographers typically offer virtual staging as well as normal photos.
By working with a virtual staging company like PhotoUp, you get the benefit of working with a team of world-class virtual staging artists and photo editors who will make each room look 100% realistic.
Another benefit of using a virtual staging company is that you will dramatically expand your real estate marketing reach. Buyers from all over the world will be able to access your images online. This broadens your marketing reach and allows potential buyers to make a decision or ask follow-up questions to the real estate agent at any time.
When you opt for physical home staging, your target market is restricted. Only buyers who live locally and have the time and means to travel to the property for a showing will be able to reap the benefits of your home staging service. Not to mention, real estate agents typically only show a home 1-2 times per month.
Cons of Virtual Staging Software and Apps
When you choose to use virtual staging software to do it all on your own, you probably save a little time but you have no support to help you. Sure, using virtual staging software or a free virtual staging app may save you a few bucks, but remember that you’re responsible for all staging, rendering, and revisions for your clients.
With no additional support, you may find yourself doing more work yourself. On the other hand, by hiring out a team to help you with virtual staging, you’ll also have the support you need to manage the inevitable revisions from your real estate agent or home seller.
As you can see, there are pros and cons to both virtual staging companies and home staging services. But, in this digital age, with 94% of home buyers starting their search online, virtual staging seems like the more practical and realistic way to save and money while showcasing your property to a broader market.
For more information on how PhotoUp can offer you world-class Virtual Staging, please get in touch and start a trial today.
