The Real Skinny of Virtual Home Staging
In today’s housing market, new ways of selling homes are popping up everywhere: open house parties, give-aways, auctions, and in recent weeks there have been some online articles discussing what’s being referred to as “Virtual Staging”.
Virtual Staging is a service where photos of a home are digitally manipulated to show various improvements—walls painted, furniture added, even stains on carpet removed! While the technology is interesting the service has Home Stagers concerned.
“I believe that is risky business and this is a real challenge in possible misrepresentation at best,” says Barb Schwarz, inventor of the Home Staging Concept.
87% of buyers go to the internet first to find a home, and many decisions are made based on the pictures posted. Is it fair that these pictures do not truly represent what the home looks like? Home Staging has become a popular and proven effective way to sell a home. Statistics show that 94.8% of ASP Staged Homes sell on average in 37 days or less and this is true in every price range.†The same cannot be said for Virtual Staging.
“One of my concerns with Virtual Staging is the fact that if the manipulated images are shown to home buyers they’ll be sorely disappointed if and when they visit the home. While the enhanced images are apparently done in hopes that they would help entice buyers to visit, the buyers will then find a home they will not recognize from the images they saw if they actually do go to the house and probably then they will just walk away. This is exactly what will happen if indeed the house has not been actually Staged for real. This is why I invented Home Staging in the first place to set the scene in the actual house,” Says Barb Schwarz. “The scenario of Virtual Staging certainly doesn’t benefit the seller or the buyer nor does it help the REALTORÆ working to sell the home.†REALTORSÆ might even be in violation of our Code of Ethics if they in fact use altered images, without the physical changes being made in homes they represent, in their marketing materials.† I certainly want to caution REALTORSÆ from using what is being called Virtual Staging, and advise them that what needs to be done is true Home Staging IN the house, not have pictures altered which can mislead the buyer and be ineffective for the sellers.”
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My wife and I recently toured an home that was Virtually Staged. While the idea sounds intriguing, I have to confess my emotional response wasn't positive. Had I viewed the home on line as a buyer would and then saw the home vacant and cold, with large pictures of what it "might" look like, I think it wouldn't have been positive.
I believe a major part of our business is managing expectations. What I saw in reality did not line up with what the photo's indicated. When a client feels disappointment in a home, its difficult to recover the momentum and bring them back onto the positive features of the home they initially asked for.
I will definitely show a virtually staged home, but I will prepare my clients and set expectations in such a way that we can alll be successful. All I ask is please alert us in the descriptions on the MLS that it is virtually staged, so I can set the stage.
Dan