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Top 8 Useful Tips to Virtually Stage a Room
Did you know how many prospective home buyers prefer seeing the photos of the properties they are interested in before making the final decision?
That’s a whopping 87%!
Also, how much faster do staged properties sell than their un-staged competitors? 86% faster!
Well, these stats are quite evident of the huge significance of showcasing a property or its rooms with real-life furniture.
As most things around us are eventually becoming digital, decorating and staging properties for prospective buyers have also turned towards a digital alternative: virtual staging.
In this article, we will discuss in detail what digitally staging a home entails and how to virtually stage a room with just a few clicks. Keep scrolling!
What is “virtual staging”?
Virtual staging is the process of digitally decorating a vacant room with digital 3D models of furniture items and utilities to appeal to interested buyers. The entire process happens with the help of advanced home staging software.
It is an immensely potent marketing tool for all real estate agents, brokers, property dealers, and so on. Using the latest software and technologies, realtors can each aesthetically place furniture items, electrical appliances, other popular household utilities, and more with appropriate lighting and styling.
How does virtual staging impact the real estate industry?
With time, home staging has become a costly matter for realtors, considering the expensive professional photoshoots, rising logistics charges, and the arrangement of actual furniture. Thus, staging a property digitally or virtually is an easy, convenient, and highly cost-effective alternative to these expensive affairs.
Computerized decorating is no longer limited to simulated video games where players can furnish their “virtual” homes with accessories. Real estate agents and companies have realized the value of doing things virtually rather than traditionally, which requires substantial labor, as well as hefty bills; the virtual approach can save them up to 90%!
Moreover, the traditional process was cumbersome, time-consuming, and inconvenient for buyers also. With the apps and software, dragging and dropping luxury furniture items is just a matter of a few clicks and a basic knowledge of home staging.
Buyers can view the final rendered outcome from the comfort of their homes, take a complete virtual tour of the property, and then make their choice.
8 ultimate tips for virtually staging a room
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Create photorealistic 3D models of the objects
Virtual home staging starts with developing photo-realistic digital models of the specific objects or furniture items in a 3D space that you want to integrate within the property photo.
Using advanced 3D modeling software like Visualstager, Rooomy, Housecraft, Planner5D, PadStyler, etc., you can create the furniture and furnishing objects with exact measurements and parameters, aligning with the respective bedrooms, living spaces, kitchens, bathrooms, patio, the doors, windows, walls, stairs, balconies, etc., with accurate architectural intricacies. This doesn’t take much time and is also pretty interesting to create using the mentioned software.
You can create a library of custom 3D models and utilize them for staging the rooms, you can also avail of the pre-built models available in the software. Alternatively, you may outsource to a professional virtual staging agency who can custom-create each accessory and interior decor item with realistic textures and materials, to make them look accurately realistic.
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Declutter the room per the buyer’s preference
Real estate virtual staging is not just about adding objects; it's also about making the room clutter-free. There are high-end home staging software that enable decluttering unwanted objects with a mouse click.
A beginner to real estate home staging or realtors who want to do it themselves can leverage these tools and give the room a makeover, digitally. The actual photo of the room might have a few old-fashioned chairs and tables left by the previous owners that might not be ideal for your target audience’s lifestyle.
Get rid of these undesirable kinds of stuff from the scene by using a photo editing software. With tools like the healing spot brush, clone stamp tools, etc., you can make the room look minimal and elegant with just a few clicks.
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Leverage the AR technology and AR-compatible models
Virtual furniture staging is increasingly popular with new-age property dealers who prefer house showings done with modern technology. With an open house done virtually with AR-compatible furniture models, customers get an even more unique experience and an in-depth house tour without moving.
AR technology also enables real-time furniture configuration to check how the pieces look within a specific environment. Top retail brands like IKEA, Amazon, Target, etc., have the provision of AR-compatible furniture models that could be used during the interior virtual staging sessions.
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Adjust the lighting and shadow
Real estate professionals must be extra cautious about the light and shadow of the room they will display to potential buyers. The software that professional creative specialists utilize give them ample options to set the lights up in a way that aligns with the existing interior.
If the scene is in daylight, try adding a soft light that doesn’t negate the daylight or conflict with it. Use warm ambient lighting if the staging environment has to be a nighttime scene. This helps in achieving a nearly 100% ultra-realistic lighting effect.
Similarly, evening scenes with a burning fireplace and dim lights can certainly enhance your real estate listings.
Finally, a warm or ambient light that blends perfectly with the setting must be incorporated to make the objects appear real. All of these could be easily done using a software, or by hiring a digital staging expert.
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Install the camera angles correctly
Accurate camera views from multiple angles are the key to a successful virtual property visit. Before staging a property digitally, the concerned artist or a real estate photographer must keep a precise configuration of the camera position to ensure a perfect horizon line.
This will eventually help the virtual stager align the entire room with the furniture 3D model, just as in the original photo. Professional photographers who work with virtual home stagers are highly experienced in setting up the cameras at the right angles.
So, if you are starting with home staging for real estate firms, ensure the photos you get have perfect alignment.
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Do a thorough post-processing
Potential real estate buyers will only feel interested if the property they view virtually is flawless. Full-proof post-processing is mandatory to achieve this perfection and excellence.
Once you finish creating the furnishings and decors with the help of a best-performing 3D software program, transfer the image files into a graphic editing tool, preferably Photoshop, for the last moment fine tunings. Here the furniture arrangement needs to be cut out along with the realistic shadows and directly incorporated into the original photo of the property.
Furthermore, in this post-processing phase, retouch the corners of the objects if required, make some shadow, saturation, contrast, and highlight adjustments here and there, and make a bit of color correction to blend the 3D-created scene within the actual photo.
Make sure the quality of the objects is top-notch and matches the room accurately. That way, the image will appear 100% real without making the furniture seem glued to the photo.
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Use the best virtual staging software
To make your real estate listings all the more enhanced, engaging, and efficient, you need to opt for the best software available on the market.
Be extremely diligent while making your pick, as the performance of the software will ultimately reflect on the finished staging work. The more features the tool has, the faster you can execute the process.
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Team up with a real estate virtual staging expert
The last, and probably the best way to get your virtual staging done with a few clicks, is to hire a staging professional. You may contact several expert virtual staging firms with years of experience and diverse domain knowledge.
These experts are thorough with all the latest technology and tools and will digitally stage your property in the best possible way. Not only can you trust their quality of work, but you can also save up to thousands. These firms have a fairly nominal charge compared to the expensive licenses of the digital staging software.
Also, you can share a lot of workload with them and focus on your other core business areas.
Finally, there’s another great benefit of outsourcing to a third-party professional agency, as they offer numerous other relevant image editing support like real estate photo editing, image decluttering, and more.
With the advent of the Internet, myriads of things have become super convenient and technologically augmented, such as eCommerce, communication, travel and tourism, hospitality, healthcare, and many more.
The real estate market has been a relatively new player in the market to leverage Internet and AI-based tools, 3D technology, etc. 3D modeling technology has been a boon for this industry, giving them a competitive edge, as well as skyrocketing sales.
Virtual home or room staging is one of the vital aspects of technology that has manifold benefits for realtors and home buyers alike. Moreover, the pandemic has been quite instrumental in young urban individuals opting for a virtual “open house”; and this trend is surging higher and higher.
Conclusion
Hope this list of handy tips and tricks will definitely guide any beginner to virtually stage a room or a house within a few minutes. A DIY approach is undoubtedly a great one, but to add a professional touch, an expert hand is required.
Get in touch with professional companies who offer exceptional expert real estate virtual staging services and give your product listings a winning edge!
