Virtual Staging vs. Traditional Staging

Farm Talk: Virtual Staging vs. Traditional Staging – Cost-Effective, Professional, Beautiful!

Welcome to another edition of Farm Talk! Today Paul talks about staging – both traditional and virtual staging, a newer option.

If you have a house to sell and your furniture is a bit dated or it is an empty house you have two options to attract more buyers:

1 – You can go the traditional way and stage your house with professional stagers who will bring in nicer furniture that will match the style of your home. Traditional staging is pricey but very effective.

2 – Virtual staging: When viewed online, the rooms look amazing-often you can’t tell it is virtual! Of course, in reality, the furniture does not exist so when the people physically arrive at your property, there is no furniture. Virtual staging will get people to your house and give them an idea of how furniture will look there.

Paul has staged houses both ways. He has literally spent thousands with traditional staging and virtually staged houses for two hundred dollars!

Listen to Farm Talk and find out important details and helpful tips. Present your house in the most attractive way and do it cost-effectively!

Transcription

Farm Talk: Virtual Staging vs. Traditional Staging – Cost-Effective, Professional, Beautiful!

Farm Talk – Virtual Staging vs. Traditional Staging – Cost-Effective, Professional, Beautiful!

If you have a house to sell and your furniture is a little bit dated or you’re selling an empty house, there are two options. One option is the traditional way and it’s a little bit pricey, but it is very effective. The other option is a newer technique.

Traditionally with an empty house or with a house that has a furniture that might be dated, one idea to attract more buyers is to bring in nicer furniture. There are professionals that work in this field, which is the world of professional staging, that will bring in furniture that fits the style of your home. For example, if you have a western home, they’re going to bring in western furniture. If you have a French themed home, they’ll bring in French furniture. If you have a contemporary home, they’ll bring in contemporary furniture.

There are two different ways of pricing in the traditional staging world that I’ve seen. One is where they charge an upfront fee, which is quite expensive, but if your house is listed for sale for four months, six months, eight months or longer, you could be getting your money’s worth if your house sells quickly, it’s a lot of money to spend for just a short period of time. On the other hand, some other stagers are more affordable in the beginning, but it can become more expensive over time. Let’s say they charge maybe $500 in the beginning, but then for every month after the initial month, they’ll bill you a few hundred dollars. So, if your property’s on the market for four months, six months, eight months or longer, it can definitely add up into the thousands quite quickly. 

Now, I will say in the traditional staging world, the pictures can be fabulous and taking professional photography of a staged room is going to attract more buyers than taking professional photography of an empty room. Some people are visionaries and see things as they can be, but I’ve found a lot of people just see things as they are. When buyers come and they look at a home that’s empty, a lot of people cannot visualize how the furniture would be set up in a room, so having professional staging does make a difference when buyers come to look at properties.

A more affordable option that is a newer technique of staging is virtual staging. When people are looking at properties online on their favorite websites, they will see furniture in the room that does not really exist. All of the photography is still professionally done, those photographs with empty bedrooms, empty kitchen, empty dining room and empty living room are all sent to a virtual stager who then uses Photoshop to superimpose furniture that fits the style of that home. Again, if you have a western home, he’ll put in a western couch. If you have a contemporary home, he’ll put in a contemporary couch and it looks great online. You literally cannot tell sometimes that a home is virtually staged. Though, when people come to look at the property physically, there of course is no furniture because it all was virtual in the virtual tour, but it got people to the property and they could still see when they look at the photographs how furniture might fit into each individual room. This option is a fraction of the cost. I’ve staged homes for literally thousands of dollars and I virtually staged similar size homes for just a couple hundred dollars. It’s also a flat fee so, if your home is on the market for several months, you, or the realtor, has already paid for the virtual staging upfront at just a fraction of the cost of professional staging with real furniture. It’s a real alternative and I would strongly advise, especially if you have a limited budget and everybody of course wants to save money, to look at the idea of virtually staging your home. Especially if your house is empty and if your furniture is dated, you may want to move that furniture out of the house and then virtually stage an empty house because it’s going to pop much more online than using dated furniture or not using any furniture at all.

We’d love to hear from you! As always, feel free to email Paul@homeandranchteam.com.