The next frontier in home listings: Virtual staging

Twin brothers and colleagues Daniel and Dave Duddingston knew a condo they were selling was a gem. It had a wood-burning fireplace, two crystal chandeliers and was just steps away from Loring Park in Minneapolis.

The only problem was, the owner had already moved, leaving the unit empty.

That's when the brothers, who run Duddingston Group, a division of Keller Williams Realty, turned to an emerging trend in real estate: virtual staging.

As an alternative to the more traditional practice of physically staging a home with furniture and decor, listing agents are turning to marketing companies that use special software to virtually fill an empty residence with furnishings online.

"Presentation is a big thing for us — we rarely sell properties empty because it's tougher to see how to live in that space without furniture," said Daniel.

In the case of their unfurnished 1,715-square-foot condo in Loring Park, the Duddingston brothers gave it new life by adding to the online listing everything from beds and a couch to wall art, vases and dishware. On-site, the duo had those photos enlarged and prominently displayed.

"Online photos — that's the first showing and digitally furnishing is better than photos of an empty condo," Daniel said. "But when [potential buyers] walk into the home and there's nothing there, it's a buzzkill."

Tech trends

While digital staging has been around for years, its growing popularity as of late is due to the fact that technology has come a long way. Gone are the days of a cartoonish look, making way for high-quality, three-dimensional renderings that are almost indistinguishable from real furniture, Daniel said.

"It's gotten much better," he said.

In addition to adding life to unfurnished spaces, sellers and listing agents turn to virtual staging when there are price constraints, said Joe Grunnet, a Realtor at DRG in Minneapolis. It's also particularly useful for small or awkwardly laid out properties where buyers need more help to envision how the space can be furnished, he said.

Jay Louricas, who owns Minneapolis-based Agnt Media digital marketing, offers photography services, 3-D tours and digital staging of real estate listings. Since starting the small company a year ago, he's digitally furnished nearly 60 homes.

Traditional staging can run thousands of dollars to fill an entire home, but virtual staging costs between $25 and $75 per photo, meaning the tab for a condo or home could run closer to the mid- to high-$100s, Louricas said.

According to the most recent National Association of Realtors home staging report, virtual staging is rising in popularity as millennials enter the marketplace. They tend to be more comfortable browsing and shopping online than previous homebuyers.

As a marketer, Louricas said, it's important that the pieces fit the space.

"You can take a great angle of the room and make staging furniture smaller to make the room look ginormous," he said. "But that's not the equitable thing to do. You're trying to portray the property accurately."

Still second fiddle

Though virtual staging is an emerging trend, it isn't going to take over traditional staging anytime soon, Daniel said. In addition to it looking more professional, buyers physically touring the home can see how real furniture fits into a space.

"We don't do virtual a whole lot; we prefer staging with real furniture," he said. "We work with three different staging companies that range in different styles. The outcomes for those are really good."

Locally, there is no requirement that an agent disclose that a property is virtually staged. However, it is recommended that they do so if the listing goes through Northstar MLS, the listing website for real estate brokers and listing agents in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, according to Justin Dahlke, who works on the site's compliance office.

In the case of the Duddingston brothers, they make sure to include before and after photos so it's obvious, and they also disclose virtual styling on the listing itself. In Grunnet's case, he notes it in the corners of a photo.

Grunnet added that with more advances in technology, virtual staging will continue to evolve.

"I think this trend will continue on," he said. "Especially with all the [artificial intelligence] advancements going on ... there might be a way to have AI virtually stage a home someday."