Read on to learn what not to do for luxury real estate listings and how virtual staging can be an incredible marketing tool for high-end properties.
We must discuss virtual staging and luxury real estate to understand the idea entirely.
A basic definition of virtual staging is placing digital renderings of furniture and decor onto photos of vacant spaces. However, virtual staging is an umbrella term encompassing an extensive range of services (from simply adding furniture to virtual renovations) and quality levels.
A quick Google search will show you a large number of well-known virtual staging companies right away. Many of them seem similar on the surface. Still, there are many significant differences in each company’s offerings, and most virtual staging companies do not fall into the “virtual luxury staging category.”
On the other hand, the term “luxury real estate” doesn’t have a cut-and-dry definition. According to the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, it’s defined as homes in the top 10% of their local market. With this definition, luxury homes can mean $30 million mansions in Beverly Hills or $1 million homes in smaller markets like Kansas City.
Logically, virtual luxury staging could be defined similarly: the top 10% of all digital staging services.
Some of the most expensive virtual staging services, such as VHT Studios, would need to meet the expectations of luxury real estate. But there’s much more to consider than price alone. Please read more details in our full breakdown of the costs of virtual staging.
To figure out which virtual staging services are the best, you need to look at the following six things:
1. Photorealism and Image Quality
With today’s technology, making a digital rendering of furniture takes little time or skill. Almost anyone can find a way to edit photos or add a virtual table to an image of a room. If you want to find an extremely cheap way to furnish a room digitally, you wouldn’t have to look very hard. However, adding a 3D rendering of furniture to a photo and making the result look fantastic and realistic is rare.
Presenting a beautiful, realistic visual in high-end real estate is a must. When considering anything luxurious—custom cabinets, handbags, art, even food—what makes things or experiences elegant is the marriage of good design and attention to the fine details. Luxury staging is the same.
Luxury virtual stagers have the highest level of photorealism, all the way down to the details. All furniture and decor added are to scale in the room. There are no blurry edges or awkwardly shaped proportions. Virtually staged luxury properties are interchangeable with high-quality real estate photography.
2. Furniture and Decor
Most high-end virtual staging services don’t simply add any sofa to a living room and check off the box. On the other hand, luxury virtual staging services hand-pick furniture that fits the style and size of a space and the area it is in. Listing3D is the only virtual staging company that uses digital renderings of furniture and decor from high-end companies that can be purchased. Read more about Listing3D’s online interior design services.
3. Proportions and Composition
One of the most popular reasons that real estate agents use virtual staging is because staged photos help buyers understand the potential, size, and intended use of space. Composition is critical in all outstanding real estate photography, and there’s a clear difference between vacant and staged real estate images.
Custom virtual staging work for luxury listings, Listing3D before and after bedroom
Unfortunately, this is also one of the first things other virtual staging companies need to correct. Again, adding furniture is easy, but appealing to high-end buyers with particular tastes and high expectations is much more difficult.
For example, here’s an example of poor image quality and composition. Because of the poor virtual staging, the photo’s focus is the back of the couch. As a result, it is tough to appreciate what the rest of the space looks or feels like.
4. Style
A typical home staging tip is opting for neutral colors over bold ones. This is because home staging is designed to appeal to the broadest range of potential buyers, and bold colors can be polarizing for large numbers of people.
However, familiar or forgettable is the opposite of luxurious, which needs to stand out and impress. Staging a luxury property with “basic” furnishings is a surefire way to un-impress buyers. In million-dollar homes, flat beige walls, carpet, and decor will not cut it. Luxury homebuyers are looking for something other than a home that they can upgrade to fit their style. They’re looking for a home that already reflects their unique personality and style.
Part of the home staging process is determining the appropriate design style for a property. Listing3D offers seven different design styles to choose from:
- Comfortable contemporary
- Farmhouse
- Industrial/Urban
- Modern
- New Traditional
- Scandinavian
- Sleek Contemporary
At Listing3D, a seller or their real estate agent can choose which style best fits the home—or they can leave it up to Listing3D’s design professionals to select it for them.
That brings us to one of the essential elements of luxury home staging: expertise.
5. Interior Design and Home Staging Expertise
If you’re a real estate professional, you know that selling a luxury property requires specialized experience and knowledge. Similarly, virtually staging luxury properties requires trained professionals. There’s too much at stake (your time, an extensive commission check, opportunity costs) to risk virtually producing luxury property photos or hiring a photo editor to do it for you cheaply.
Listing3D is one of the only virtual staging and online design companies that employ professional stagers and interior designers. No matter which virtual staging service you choose, your photos will be staged with furniture and decorations constantly selected by professional interior designers and home stagers to make each space in a listing look its best.
6. Photo Editing and Rendering Capabilities
As we said above, “virtual staging” usually means adding items to a photo of an empty room. However, that only sometimes fulfills the primary purpose of home staging, which is to help homes sell faster and for the best price.
The proper virtual staging may include the following:
- Removing or replacing furniture.
- Editing the photo’s background.
- Adjusting the lighting.
- Changing appliances or cabinets.
- Changing flooring or wall colors.
Virtual staging for luxury homes shouldn’t be limited, but it should always be of the highest quality.
Some virtual staging companies, like BoxBrownie, offer a wide range of services, from editing photos to creating 3D floor plans and virtual tours. But by providing a vast array of services, companies like this are “a mile wide and an inch deep” (i.e., focused on offering as many services as possible, thereby sacrificing their ability to focus on developing world-class expertise in a particular service, which is what luxury properties demand).
On the other hand, other staging companies like VRX Staging only offer a few essential services like staging, furniture removal, and wall color changes. This limits your staging abilities and doesn’t provide you with the benefits a luxury property needs.
With Listing3D virtual staging, the priority is offering the highest quality of virtual staging services without limiting your abilities. You won’t see additional services like 3D renderings or walkthrough tours, but you will receive the highest level of service and quality with each virtual staging order placed.
Listing3D offers only what luxury buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals expect: access to experts who can perform various virtual staging services.
Even though both services are technically under the “virtual home staging” umbrella, do-it-yourself (“DIY”) virtual staging is an entirely different service from virtual luxury staging.
DIY virtual staging is intended to put digital furniture into a space in the quickest, cheapest way possible; there is no consideration for quality, realism, or actual staging expertise.
Agents or homeowners who use DIY virtual staging services always look for the most affordable option. They need to look for the best quality or composition which attracts luxury buyers.
It’s okay to prioritize budget over quality. However, most virtual staging services that compete on price are not the right fit for luxury real estate professionals and the properties and clients they represent.
The purpose, process, and results of DIY staging or extremely low-budget staging vs. professional virtual stage are entirely different.
Virtual staging with a luxury company like Listing3D means getting the highest level of design and staging expertise, image quality, and built-in real estate marketing features like a free single property website, which can be automatically generated for each property that Listing3D stages.
High-end virtual staging is more similar to traditional or physical home staging than DIY staging. Read more about virtual and actual staging differences in our guide.
However, not all common beliefs about virtual staging are factual. Many real estate agents believe the virtual stage is only appropriate for budget-friendly properties.
There’s also a false belief that all home buyers prefer traditional staging with authentic furniture.
But when you think about what home buyers want, this needs to be more accurate. More than anything, buyers want to feel confident about the biggest purchase of their lives. In particular, luxury home buyers often consider spending millions of dollars on their homes.
What they want is something other than surprises.
When you virtually stage a home, you use visual marketing to show the home’s full potential. At the same time, potential buyers can walk through the vacant property and see the home as-is, with no surprises waiting for them during the final walkthrough.
Instead of being distracted by the beautiful furniture and decor, empty spaces can help buyers visualize their furniture and decor in the home. It keeps them from being distracted and finding unpleasant surprises during the walkthrough.
In some ways, virtual staging is more honest than traditional home staging.
Virtual staging image sign in physical property
Plus, when you remove the physical elements from home staging, you also remove any risk of property damage. You don’t need to have a team of strangers coming in and out of the house, and you don’t have to worry about the logistics of carrying large furniture around fragile or unique home designs.
So, is virtual staging the right choice for luxury properties?
- Absolutely.
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