Virtual Staging Helps Tell Your Home's Story

Every home has a story and telling this story is what real estate professionals do so well. Your agent uses various tools available to get this job done. One tool that spiked in popularity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic is using virtual staging to show a home. While virtual staging has been used long before the pandemic, buyers became better acquainted with being able to get instant access and to be able to walk-throughout the rooms.

Fast Facts about Virtual Staging

• Virtual staging is composed on a computer using graphics. The graphic designer works from high-resolution photographs of each room.
• There is less physical labor, more furnishing décor options, and typically less cost when choosing virtual staging. Think, no more lugging heavy rugs or furniture into a home nor carrying many boxes of home décor to arrange in the rooms.
• The convenience of virtual staging allows for viewing and printing display photographs from any smartphone, computer, or online-capable device.
• If and when a potential buyer visits a home in-person, they discover the home does not show the same décor depicted in the computerized rooms.

Traditional Home Staging vs. Virtual Staging

In traditional home staging a home staging professional is invited to your home to prepare the rooms for the listing. The staging professional may work with your décor but often will come with relevant furnishings and décor items to highlight standout features throughout. The home stager’s goal is to work with the home’s layout, natural lighting, and accentuate each of the appealing elements that potential buyers are hoping to see in a home. Any flaws present in the home will be minimalized.

The staging professional will pay special attention to the latest furnishing trends. Using these trends, the home stager will work to complement the furnishings with the architectural style of the home to create an eye-catching combination.

Virtual staging begins with a high-resolution photograph of the room. From here, the graphic designer places furnishings from a computer-generated digital catalog of items—rugs, plants, chairs, coffee table and end tables, sofa, kitchen appliances, bedroom furniture, electronics, artwork, and so much more. The graphic designer can additionally adjust the natural lighting in the room to reflect daytime, night-time, or outside weather conditions.  

With the high number of millennials and baby boomers comfortable searching online for real estate and using a computer, virtual staging consistently grows in popularity and is shifting to becoming a preferred way to stage a home.
Virtual staging can typically be completed in a few days with more customizations—allowing the designer to tailor the final look to a specific target audience of buyers. For instance, if your prospective buyer is searching for a modern, high-tech, eco-friendly home, the graphic designer can create the rooms with this in mind—showing electronics, sleek furnishings, and the emphasis on the natural lighting. In comparison, with traditional home staging the current homeowner’s furnishings may not be in the modern style, in the trending color schemes, or have many electronic touches available.

How To Prepare Your Home for Virtual Staging

Preparing your home for photographs which will be delivered to the graphic designer includes many of the same preparations as preparing your home for listing. Your checklist will include:

• Cleaning and decluttering each room.
• Putting away personal items.
• Finalizing any home improvements or repairs.
• Maintaining and cleaning the yard, pool, and surrounding landscape.

Since 2004 Sara Lyn Nguyen continues to bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise about buying and selling real estate around the Houston area to those she serves. Sara is a multi-year award winning REALTOR® and relocation specialist where her clients trust her to have up-to-date information on the real estate market. She has been one of Gary Greene’s Multi-Million Dollar Top Producers, and citywide was the #2 Top Producing agent in 2020, and #3 in 2021. When it’s time to buy, sell, invest, or relocate speak with a trusted professional knowledgeable in the homes and neighborhoods of Fort Bend/Sugar Land and the surrounding region.