There is a realtor in my town who does this, using pictures of the buyers own furniture to show them how it will look (do they have ZERO imagination?). It has worked very well for him. Buyers have no idea what is staged or not staged. It will not be a problem for them.

Interesting he does that!

I read realtors strongly prefer homes with furniture to show because buyers have trouble with spacial relations and just how furniture should be placed or rooms used. Also, with reportedly 90% of shoppers looking at homes online before deciding to see, I just wanted to enhance the listing pics to bring our A-game online. Hey, if it gets one person more in the door, they may be the one.

This is very impressive! Hope it helps sell quickly.

So cool, just a question. Will buyers be annoyed or put off once they see it is actually not furnished?

I dunno, even without staging, sometimes the photos are taken and then the people move out, so you don't always see exactly the same thing. If they're interested, they can compare their understanding of the space to the distribution of furniture in the photos to help with a sense of scale...

I forgot to mention the empty rooms are still shown online with the staged versions following the empty ones. It's a cadence of empty rooms followed by staged rooms.

You posted some great pics and they showcase the room very nicely. I am a Realtor and have used actual staging with furniture in the home for properties that buyers have a difficult time imagining how their furniture would fit. That would be my only objection to using just the virtual staging - how would the consumer be able to convert the pics (as shown) to seeing their furniture in the place? My experience is that few have the ability to scale the furniture to the room in the right way - even when I measure the space with them. One of the most frequent objections I get when walking into a room is "my bed won't fit" (and the room is 15' x 13' for example).

Exactly, Denita. I don't know how they would be able to convert the pics to their own furniture anyway...whether empty, staged, or homeowners furniture showing. I asked my realtor about blowing these pics up and mounting them...then displaying them as "IMAGINE" pics in each of the rooms.

When its staged in real life, I don't have that problem because they can see the king size bed fits with two nightstands and a dresser. I have had great success hiring a professional stager to have real furniture in the room. I don't have that same success with just photos - it brings in the people, but they still give the objection (usually it's two small or the rooms aren't sized right). That objection disappears when the house is furnished with real furniture.

I have a couple of professional photographers that want to use the virtual staging, but I just can't see the value if I lose the buyer when they walk into the home and there is no furniture. It's a good idea but until we can get little gizmos to float virtual furniture in the room, the idea is only half way achieved: getting them to the door but not getting them to see the size appropriately. JMO.

Am truly impressed. You did a wonderful job. The only room I didn't like so much, was the children's bedroom, because of the weird color of the carpet on the floor, that didn't match well in my opinion with the bed linen. Didn't like the pictures on the wall either. So that's the only one I would redo.

Smart to put it on the internet both with and without furniture. And also smart to hang up a picture of what could be in each actual room. This probably will help understand the space and it's possibilities.

Here are a couple small suggestions: Are there any virtual plants you can put in the rooms? The pictures are very nice, but also rather sterile. Something virtual living might add to it.

And: could you also do a series of rooms with a lot more color in it? For now it selects a very specific audience, namely the neutralists. If people can't see through an empty room, can they see through this much of grey?

Hope this helps. But once again: I'm truly impressed with your fine work.

In my neighborhood, empty houses sell far better than those with furniture. The ones with furniture typically have lots of antique wood and porcelain and are owned by someone older (like me!) who is downsizing or who has died. It's only the young buying in my neighborhood these days and they are confused if the furniture doesn't look exactly like what they have or intend to buy.

I always wonder how young people with so little imagination accumulate enough money to buy in my neighborhood...

Anglophilia, that problem is widespread. As an agent I have to spend a great deal of time trying to get buyers to see the house (style, layout, features) rather than looking at the sellers' furniture and colors. I'm sure this is how professional staging started - it is rare for a buyer to be able to see around the sellers' colors and personal items to the actual home.

Denita, with actual staging, what is your furniture resource? I was seeing quotes in the thousands monthly for furniture rentals. I understand now what you meant about envisioning their own furniture - I was being too literal. Haha

Very nice job, and good point of including both empty and "occupied" spaces.

As for tailoring it for different buyers..that'd be already full service:) imagine showing the same place furnished, say, in 4 different styles..:) empty plus four other versions..

(the whole thing about unimaginative buyers reminded me though that booklet, for passing a theoretical exam on driving in the US..I vividly remember the introduction..it was something like "Don't get irritated with trucks on the road. Remember that trucks help us. They bring food, furniture, etc.." I swear it was something like that. So funny.)

Your tv was too high so I lowered it and got rid of the "cord". LOL. Nice job.

Amazing!

jillk60532 - I hired a professional staging company from Houzz right here in my area. Her name is Robin with East Coast Home Staging. Her rates were very inexpensive. Sold the house in 30 days from staging to closing. This was in late June 2017. She has her own inventory of furniture. You might not be on the east coast of Florida - so shop stagers in your area that have their own inventory. I had to check several as some didn't have an inventory and others didn't provide a professional estimate. She did an excellent job. Some of the staging co's I contacted were very expensive (in comparison) and not worth the additional cost. IMO staging works. [Edit: In this specific instance there was an initial set up fee and a monthly charge for renting the stager's furniture and other staging items. I only did spot staging and not the entire house. It was very inexpensive (less than $1500) and the house netted +$10k over market value for the neighborhood.]

my quibble for 'virtual' staging is you can expand or shrink a bed to fit a space to look great... but no beds are actually that size in real life. at least when its the owners furniture, its an actual size bed.

(my other quibble is real estate photos that stretch a room to make it look humungous. fat oval wall clocks are the giveaway. but thats another topic.)

The beds in my scenes display at minimumum what what we grew up with in those rooms. It would not be useful to set false expectations.

Looks great!!

I was thinking along the lines of ninigret as well, even though you didn't do that, I could see myself thinking the staged photos may not be to size. Having just purchase a home I actually preferred finding empty homes online to look at, so it's good you included the empty photos as well as the staged ones. The staged ones might be better with the less imaginative people that Anglophilia was talking about. Your staged ones are far better then the many homes out there for sale with the sellers furniture crowed in rooms making the them look much smaller then they are.

Looks great! What software did you use for this?

I really like the idea, as you have done it - showing both the empty room and the virtual. I appreciate truth in photography!

I know that staging worked to sell our previous home but was still annoyed by the fact that we had to remove all furniture but our mattress and the stager knew we would be occupying the place while it was on the market. But I did look at the labels on the sofa with chaise she brought in (I liked the size and style just not the BEIGE) and turned to the internet with just the designer's name, it took a month to get here but I bought one in a color I like (brilliantly deep sapphire blue) for our new home! (Nebraska Furniture Mart is truly the MEGA furniture store, they have everything and anything. Might need a golf cart to get from one end to the other on a shopping trip or carry hiking supplies like snacks and bottled water ;) It really is massive though.)

I can't help but wonder if the buyer of our previous residence has discovered the white paint hastily put over the cabinet doors in the entry, the stair railing and the loft railing was a last minute thing the stager decided had to be done, so that flat finish of white paint is going to start chipping off if it's not already...But then that's going to be their issue to fix, maybe they'll take the time to sand it all back to bare wood, stain and finish it, I wish we'd done that but I bought the place already with paint on the cabinets, rails and beams were painted too and the cost was prohibitive so all we could do was repaint. I don't wish to endure the process of selling a home again in this lifetime (if I don't have to), the getting up and turning all the lights on, opening all the window treatments and putting the 'for show' comforter with matching throw pillows onto the bed, or having to stuff the laundry hampers and towels we just used into the closet so that the untouched still lint-y from the store fancy ones could be put in their place. And I definitely don't want to have to pack all of my furniture into a POD container, using up travel toiletries and any leftover partial bottles, hiding the toothbrushes and putting fruit into the fridge so that the fake fruit in decorative bowls are out instead, oh and laundry done overnight because nothing of normal living day to day life can be seen if an agent who has called and scheduled then cancelled at least twice is actually going to show up on a certain day with prospective buyers in tow.

If an agent can't get their buyer to commit to a showing after 3 tries then they should have to go to the back of the queue so that the seller isn't stuck running out the back door with the dog only to find that the buyers called to cancel as the agent is arriving at the location. AGAIN.

Jenn, I am so sorry it was difficult for you. It is unusual that the entire home would be emptied out and staged while the seller still lives in the property. I do hope you were rewarded handsomely at the closing table.

Jenn, what an aweful experience. Next time compare stagers. This was a truly 'aggressive' one. It doesn't have to be so complicated. You hire the service, so You decide what's happening in Your house!

Like Denita writes: I hope you got good money for your house to ease the pain.

I was happy with the amount we sold it for, I think that if things hadn't been on such a high pressure short time frame (we listed June 15th and closed on August 2nd with closing on our new home July 28th) I wouldn't have chosen the same stager, my realtor was awesome and was able to get things that fall into the "pre listing prep" category like adding more light fixtures, replacing a worn sink faucet, new smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, arranged for the painters, a cleaner and a window washer, all things that got the place in show ready condition and I wouldn't have been able to manage with the time frame on my own so there's that. It was kind of nice to come full circle with the same realtor who found it for me back in 2002 - she's known me since I was in grade school but really she's one of the best agents in the area so it was a no brainer to choose her when it was time to sell. I did mention that her stager was extremely pushy and demanding, but I decided not to review her (she/stager is on Houzz) since I felt that I would not have much good to say and it's unlikely that any negative feedback will change how she does things anyway. Initially the idea was to work with some of our furniture but then when she came to do the assessment part it was more about convincing me to whittle down to what I 'had to keep' until only our mattress would be there and that was because we needed to sleep on it but use one of her bed frames. My agent was the one who explained the whole paint thing, and yeah it looked better in the professional pictures that we had to be out of the house for hours during, but I know what a quick paint job with flat white paint starts to look like pretty quick (lets just say that I was worried it wouldn't make it through the time the place was on the market, dings and chips happen easily and the dark brown high gloss it was put over showing up would look terrible!) I am thankful to have gotten through it, with the help of a great realtor, even if the stager was less than pleasant. She made a mess tracking leaves and stuff from outside into the house the day she moved all her furniture out, by then we didn't have a vacuum anymore and I was embarrassed that it didn't look 'broom clean' when I left there to give the keys to the agent for the final walk through. I still don't know what she did with my dog's food and water bowl stand or the plunger. They simply disappeared and I looked EVERYWHERE when making sure our stuff wasn't left in cabinets for the buyer to deal with.

I confess, we had enough furniture for the 3 bed 3 bath (well almost) we moved into in a 964sqft loft style townhome, and much of it is heritage cherry wood that I love even if most of it is older than I am and has scuffs in a few spots but nothing regular love and cleaning with proper products doesn't fix - young buyers don't want their parents' stuff, I am probably one of the only kids who DO like such pieces (I told my mom no on the china hutch, but her cherry dining table and secretary's/writing desk are on my 'shopping' list when she decides that she doesn't need them anymore. :P These are all Ethan Allen pieces, most built in the late 70's and early 80's when they still carried the Georgian Court collection. Heavy, well made, beautiful and SOLID.) When I saw the 'decor' and furniture the stager brought in I cringed and thought "Bed bath and beyond, Home goods had a love child and it has been brought to my house and left there to appeal to younger buyers. Send Help."

Is it real or is it Memorex?

Great job!

How about staging in, a la Architectural Digest, some pets or swank couples, say Jonathan Goldsmith, aka "the most interesting man in the world" and a leggy 20 something?

Oh no, if you have pets you must make your home appear as though you don't have pets. I know we get used to the dog stink and the cat box smell isn't something anyone should get used to but they do after a while...And depending on the type of home and the local market chances are the reasons a home appealed to you when you bought it are similar to what will appeal to the buyer who you sell to..Such as...a starter home for people who have pets but no kids yet, is probably going to attract new people who have pets but no kids yet just younger now like you once were when you first moved in. :P I can see this not being the case for the McMansions...but that's because...good lord who needs that much space with that little good taste!? ;)

this "pets-kids-as though" thing is kinda complicated I figure..:) Jenn I SO enjoyed reading this post!

People seem to be more forgiving of kids toys than they are of the well-gnawed and still slightly moist rawhide that even a dog owner gets the willies when they step on barefoot. :P

My mom has been telling me how remarkably well I've dealt with all the stuff that has needed fixing, replacing, and workers with scheduling difficulties out here....Well mom, it's because I have to be, things have to get fixed and replaced and eventually the schedule will work out - I just got a call from the roofer telling me that the shingles supply is FINALLY where it needs to be for them to actually, you know...REPLACE THE ROOF. :P Just in time for the homeowners insurance to *not* be cancelled. The mister has gotten to go off to work every day, while I am home to deal with things before starting *my* new job in three weeks. I wasn't designed to be a full time housewife. This I have discovered. :P I swear, if any appliance breaks down or something else comes along he's going to have to take some sick days so I don't go bonkers. Lol

What a great idea, I didn’t know this was available n I assume it’s much cheaper than actually hiring someone to stage ur place. I could use a similar type service with regards to buying a product n having to return it when I actually see it in the room. I’m tired of going back n forth! Lol

:)

Wow- think what you provide with virtual furniture is great idea for buyers struggling to understand the space. I guess only caveat would be if the software manipulates the scale of standard furniture items -- as that could mislead. I'm not selling my house at moment, but would use you if I did! Think you've got a business...!

Happy to report that about 2 weeks after posting these pictures online, we have received an offer to buy the house! The realtor said the buyers came through two open houses we had and they- as well as others who came through - loved the staged pictures and said they felt the pictures helped them imagine the use of space in the large longer living and family rooms.

Jill - congratulations!

Jenn - your stager sounds like an azz. We 'staged' using our own furniture. We edited, put quite a bit in storage, but continued to live in our house. Changing out the towels??? Crazy. We also didn't hide the cats. They live here. Lucky for us, they were the timid types, so they hid themselves. :)

Curtains and lights? Yes, you have to show as much light as possible.

Yes, we had to put our damp towels either in the closet or find the time to run them through the laundry and finish so the machines would be empty before we left for the day. She used a tension mount curtain rod to put sheers up in the bathroom to layer OVER THE FRAMELESS GLASS SHOWER DOORS not for the bathroom window. The baby gate we used to corral the dog in our home without walls and a door that make the typical room a private space because it was a two story loft style townhouse? She removed that and lost one of the pressure mount rubber footed pieces so I had to repeatedly rush around and get home to extract the dog before a showing - it was really annoying the multiple times I did that only to learn the appointment was cancelled, after the same person did that repeatedly (4 times!!!!) I told my realtor to not allow them to schedule a showing again. Staging was in the middle of the price range for SoCal, but considering that I had to pay for all our stuff to be in PODs at one of their storage yards/warehouses 2 months because they don’t pro-rate the partial months, had all those inconveniences, and had to pay for a cleaner to come (my vacuum and other supplies had already been removed from the place soooo...) take care of the leaves and other messes tracked in by the stager during removal of her patio furniture and what was in the house which the buyer discovered on the final walk through; she was too much of a pain to be charging the amount she did.

we went to an open house that had a pile of cat doodoo in the middle of one of the children's bedrooms. no matter how much i appreciate the pain of selling a house (been there...done that...) still not a great look.

my last sale we had moved out before putting the house on the market; i hope they are all that way for the rest of my life.

I am sorry you had that experience with a staging company. That is not the normal experience at all IME. Sounds like that particular staging company is difficult.

We were just so exhausted with all the stuff involved in selling and buying at essentially the same time, plus the seller we bought our home from did a few screwy things like lying about a claim with the mfg for the broken dishwasher and switching out the refrigerator for one too big for the space that had a malfunctioning ice maker (only noticed it was a different one when looking at the pictures the mister sent me when he was there for the inspection and I was at our old place)...weird is when you get a check in an envelope that originally went out with some kind of customer mailing from hayneedle.com and no return address for problem appliances, sent by the seller. :p

We don’t want to ever move cross country again.

I would also like to know what software you used.

This looks amazing, great job!

Hi @Easterly - this was an estate sale & we didn’t want to invest in ’real’ staging but knew with the size of the rooms people might need some ideas. Our agent blew up the pictures and put them on easels in the rooms. The buyer said she loved the staging ideas and it helped her envision the space filled as well as the sense of the size of the rooms unfilled.