Virtual staging, once a real estate novelty, has unfurled like a magic carpet over the investment landscape, beckoning us all to an imaginary world of HGTV-design make-believe.
On a practical level, the advantages of replacing the cost of transporting furniture, assembling it, and renting it for weeks on end with a few clicks of a mouse can’t be overstated. This is a game-changer for flippers and landlords, aware that most houses are viewed online first by 43% of those polled by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in 2024, with 41% looking at photos first. And HousingWire reports that 81% of buyers surveyed by NAR said that virtual staging helped them visualize living in a home.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has only supersized virtual staging’s capabilities. There used to be a time when the phrase “seeing is believing” held some weight. No more.
These days, it’s hard to trust what you see, at least online, whether it’s otherworldly sea creatures with almost-human faces or famous actors appearing in movies they never made. Equally in real estate, renderings using new AI-powered technology are now so lifelike that it seems impossible to think that a skilled photographer with a lighting and staging crew didn’t shoot them.
The good news is that these lifelike renderings can be created in hours, not days, and cost a fraction of hiring a stager and photographer. This means investors can start the marketing process of houses and apartments while construction is still underway.
Staging Apps
REimagine Home won HousingWire’s best overall AI-based virtual staging app and is widely used by the real estate industry. It was founded in 2023 by Styldod, a pioneer in the art of virtual staging, and it starts at…