When you’re trying to sell your home, especially in a hot housing market like Atlanta, effective home staging can make all the difference in how quickly your home sells — and for how much. Unfortunately, staging a home can be time-consuming, expensive and stressful. Homeowners are usually too attached and biased about their home to avoid making choices that distract potential sellers, and not everyone can afford to hire a professional stager to make those choices for them.
That said, technology has a way of presenting new solutions that we wouldn’t even have considered before. Such is the case with the advent of an innovative process called virtual home staging. Now being touted as a cheaper and better alternative to traditional staging methods, virtual home staging allows potential buyers to visualize their new home with their own chosen furnishings and decorating style through an Augmented Reality-based app. By taking the staging experience online, sellers have a more powerful tool for helping buyers see the potential in their home, while reducing dependence on in-person viewings as the sole opportunity to make a good impression.
How Virtual Home Staging Works
Since virtual staging occurs online via an app, photographs become the primary tool in helping buyers visualize the home. The main requirement for sellers is to provide high-quality photos of the vacant rooms in the home. This is easy enough if the house is already vacant, but even temporarily moving furnishings out of the room for a photo is cheaper than professional staging – virtual staging also makes it much easier to sell vacant homes without the extra cost of physical staging.
By using the app, home sellers can utilize Augmented Reality (AR) to superimpose a variety of staging designs (consisting of furnishings and décor) over the photo so prospective buyers can see what the rooms will look like. Swapping out pieces and designs is as easy as a click or tap, allowing buyers to view a variety of staging options for the same space.
Benefits of Virtual Home Staging for the Seller
- May reduce or eliminate the need to stage the home physically
- Can use virtual staging as a supplemental tool to entice buyers to visit
- Enhances the personalization experience making it easier to convince buyers to make an offer
Benefits of Virtual Home Staging for the Agent
- Enables the agent to store and show clients multiple properties from the palm of their hand
- Empowers agents to customize the staging experience to the client’s wants and needs using AR technology
- Increases interest in advance of on-site viewings
- Increases sales
Benefits of Virtual Home Staging for the Buyer
- Using an app allows a buyer to view multiple homes at once, fully staged, before ever making an on-site visit to properties
- Enhances the buyer’s ability to see what the home would look like decorated in their style and sensibilities
- Even after making an offer or closing the deal, buyers can use the app to assist in making decorating decisions for their new home.
Sotheby’s International Realty® is proud to offer an AR-based app called Curate to assist buyers, sellers and agents with the process of visualizing prospective properties. To learn more about how virtual home staging can help enhance the buying and selling experience of your Atlanta home, call Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s International Realty today at 404.948.4812.