Virtual Staging. Is it going to dominate the future?

Virtual Reality (VR)  has been gaining more and more popularity in recent years. It is an interactive computer-generated experience mostly associated with entertaining games. Nevertheless, it has both entertainment and serious uses. Technology keeps developing and the virtual reality environment keeps getting more and more similar to the real world, becoming cheaper and more widespread at the same time. It is always a good idea to take advantage of technology and implement it for your personal needs.

Real Estate Market

We need to remember that not everyone has the ability to perfectly imagine how their future home is going to look like while only staring at empty spaces. It is very important to let the possible residents visualize the ways they could fill the empty, completely not arranged space and create a new image of a comfortable and special place to live in. Virtual Reality gives possibilities to move the walls, open the space, add furniture, completely change the style and adapt to the individually personalized needs of customers depending on their gender, age, and professions in a simple, quick and affordable way. As a rule, vacant real estate does not attract potential buyers that much, and they take longer to sell.

The real estate market is full of second-hand houses, which very often require major renovation works. We all know how expensive living areas are, especially in big cities, which offer the best spots for young professionals, who are just at the beginning of their adult lives and are not millionaires yet. It is not uncommon for them to be burdened with the mortgage which they are supposed to repay for the next three decades, so before taking decisions on whether to buy this or that property, the potential buyers must do a lot of calculations to make a reasoned choice. They need to take into consideration not only the final price they are going to pay for the new accommodation, but also the price of renovation they will need to cover in the not too distant future. The whole process requires a lot of time and effort, so the real estate agents try to persuade the potential buyers and force the pace of the decision-making process. They have a couple of tricks in their hands that can be successfully applied.

Traditional Staging vs. VR Staging

The main goal of both types of staging is to make the home look welcoming and adorable to as many prospective buyers as possible and to attract them to visit and see the potential of the real estate. Home staging not only allows to show the good sides of the house or flat but also to erase all the negatives and disadvantages of it. Attracting the buyers is not the only goal the sellers want to achieve. They also want to sell their properties for a bigger price, and we should never forget about that. There is no necessity to stage the whole house, but if you want to go for it, be ready it will cost you more. The most important rooms which should be pimped up are the living and dining room together with a kitchen, a master bedroom, and a bathroom. If your residence has more significantly important spaces to offer (e.g. a garden) consider benefiting from that as well. A little staging can significantly improve the look, so it is worth spending some time and money over it to create a more attractive first impression.

There are even special companies dealing with such works, moreover, they are even able to rent the furniture and finishes, so the owners do not need to buy anything. Still, the invoice issued for such a project may not be encouraging. During such a process, a couple of people must be hired to carry the sofas and tables, paint the walls and mount new kitchen cupboards. Even though the outcome would be amazing, it is hard work, involving a lot of planning and organization. Is it really worth engaging so many people to achieve the same as we can achieve by ordering the VR staging prepared by a professional 3D company? All we need to arrange for them to achieve the same or even better results is a picture taken in high-quality resolution. VR staging is a new and powerful tool for creating freshly designed spaces within a matter of hours. The most relevant benefit is the price – sometimes even 90% less than the traditional staging, depending on the country you live in or whether you decide to order it abroad, which often is a very cost-effective solution. The next benefit, again significant, is the time needed to produce the interior image in 3D- depending on the number of rooms you would like to have staged, your project might be even completed in one working day. When you get your rendering, and you are not happy about the color of the walls, or you may want to change the sofa or chairs to achieve a perfectly fitted design, it is extremely easy to get such adjustments, without transporting another sofa or hiring the house painter. The renderings are produced in very high quality with a final touch of postproduction to achieve photorealistic quality. The best that VR has to offer is that it is really unlikely that you will be dissatisfied with the results, but even if you are, your comments and preferences can be immediately applied.

Any better solution?

Well, as technology keeps changing and developing relatively fast, there is a lot yet to come. But, speaking for the moment, the 3D environment has a lot to offer in the matter of real estate sales, and you should definitely try to focus on it and adapt it to your needs. VR staging is not the only option that can boost your prospects of a sale. You could also go one step forward and decide to produce the Virtual Walk, which would allow everyone, absolutely everyone with an Internet connection to experience the house or flat, without leaving their comfortable sofas. This solution can be combined with VR Staging. You can get both the still visualizations serving the role of the property pictures and then use them to create a Virtual Tour to maximize your chances. Nevertheless, there are still companies that do not want to decide to invest money in virtual products, but the number of them keeps decreasing. If they do not become aware of this solution’s advantages and start investing in such alternatives, they will be left behind by their competitors, and then it will be a bit too late to catch up with them.

We are sure virtual reality is taking virtual staging to the next level. So if your goal is to show off your real estate on the listings and attract buyers online – there is no better option than ordering the 3D visualizations in which you would additionally have a possibility to see the before and after effect. If you want MORE, you can also get the Virtual Walk, which would allow your prospective buyers to spend some time experiencing the living space and actually ‘touch’ it and get more bonded. This should serve perfectly in unfinished buildings which are under construction. So if you are about to sell a property, do not hesitate to feel the innovation and choose the perfect way to market your offer.

All pictures come from the Viscato portfolio. They show the solutions adopted from the minimalistic and industrial aesthetics. Don’t hesitate to contact our sales team to order a similar project. You can check out more Viscato works here.