A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON STAGING

Virtual staging technology allows prospective buyers to furnish a property exactly how they want it—without having to move a single piece of furniture.

If you’ve ever looked at a property and couldn’t quite picture what it would look like with furniture in it, well, now virtual staging takes the guess work out of it for you.

Steamboat Sotheby’s International Realty has joined forces with RoOmy to offer virtual staging – an innovative technological breakthrough that benefits buyers, sellers and brokers. RoOomy is30 a virtual staging company that can furnish any room digitally with real, shoppable products. “We take a high-res photo of a room in an existing property, whether it’s empty or furnished, and RoOomy will generate a photo with showing that room completely staged, in a selection of different styles,” says Traci Smith, Director of Marketing for Steamboat Sotheby’s International Realty. “The virtually staged photos are pretty amazing. You have to look really closely to recognize that the furnishings are actually computer-generated. In fact, we include a disclaimer on virtually staged photos that says the furniture doesn’t actually exist in the space, so that a prospective buyer doesn’t think that the furnishings or window coverings come with the property. We have even had one buyer ask about purchasing a property furnished, and we had to tell them that the furniture was for staging and didn’t actually even exist within the space.”

From a buyer’s perspective, virtual staging is a very helpful tool in the home shopping process, because it breaks down visualization barriers and allows prospective buyers to envision a house in their taste and style. Contrary to what many people think, empty rooms appear smaller than they are. Virtual staging helps a buyer understand what could fit within a space. An empty room that looks like it might not even fit a queen-size bed could, in reality, have plenty of room for a king-size bed plus dressers and night stands – virtual staging helps a buyer envision the true possibilities within a space.

For sellers, virtual staging is advantageous over physical staging because it’s significantly less expensive (less than .1 percent of the listing price), it’s easier, faster, and can be altered to suit a buyer’s individual tastes. According to the National Association of Realtors, over 81% of buyers said it’s easier to visualize a space as their home when it’s staged. Also, a staged home sells for more and it sells a lot faster.

Virtual staging allows the selection of furnishings from a wide variety of styles from Mid-Century modern and transitional to rustic, so a home can be staged in a way that is consistent with the architecture, or with a particular buyer’s tastes. “The staging includes everything from furniture to window treatments, rugs, art and other decor,” Smith says. “And the coolest part is, if people love the look of the room, these are real products that can be purchased online.”

“Because the first real estate showing for almost every property is online, this technology allows us to take what we do with visual representation of properties to the next level,” says Smith. “This is just another tool in our tool box to represent our listings in their best light and ultimately, give an even higher level of service to all of our clients, buyers and sellers.”

Reproduced with permission from SteamboatSIR.com