I'd be interested to know how much virtual styling costs. I first saw this about four years ago when I went with my son to a house he was keen on buying. It was completely empty, but the photos showed furniture. Some of them are easy to pick, but some really do look good. I think it has a place, but even if it gets you interested enough to walk through the door, the empty house is a big disappointment, and still feels smaller than a dressed house. Does anyone know the cost? (I know I can call an agent, but I'd rather not.)
I used it a while back to help generate interest, can’t recall exact cost but about $50 per room, costs a lot more these days. It’s ok to get people there and show what can be done but fails when people turn up. Staging is the best and only way I would ever sell these days. Just staged another house this week and looks fantastic, although costs a lot more. Still worth it.
I think that people attracted by the staged photos may be disappointed when they physically inspect an empty property. You risk raising people’s expectations unrealistically unless you state in the listing that the contents have since been removed, (even though they were never there in the first place!) Marg
I've noticed virtual staging on a couple of homes I've looked at the last couple of weeks. Only realised when we turned up to the house and it was empty. Actual staging would be much better. How much does staging (not virtual) actually cost?
Depending on house size, location, if you decide to go full stage or partial, $2600 for 3 bedroom/living area house internal and outdoor setting. I’ve had quotes for 5000, and over the east of Melbourne the charge even more. If anyone wants a new career I advise to take a look at staging, highly profitable. House takes 4-6 hours to stage, same amount of time to take away, and needs 2 people to do it. Start up about 30k-50k for furniture and truck. Workers make about 30-35hr. Huge profits and great results for sellers
I've wondered about how much staging companies make. We've staged several times. We paid about $4,500 (from memory) for a five bedroom, two living area house, veranda and outside chairs as well. It does take half a day to get it all inside, and there were at least four big blokes carrying it all in, two women doing the dressing, making beds, arranging things. Boxes of decorator items to be carried in and placed. You'd need a big storage area, at least one truck and lots of fit young men to do the carting. They work hard. I've also dressed a house for sale, pulling furniture from our house and my mother's house. I bought beds on Gumtree, bought new linen. Sold the beds between going unconditional and settlement and kept the linen for our house. That worked well, cost us next to nothing, but was a PITA, moving it all from our house, up stairs into the house for sale. Then move it all back again. Obviously there is money in it, but I'd get so tired of lugging furniture around.
Those look good. Hard to pick they aren't real. And $40 a room is a great price. There would be times this could work well.
Saw this and thought I'd drop a note as my wife and I run a property styling business in Melbourne. Don't disagree with anything that's been raised above. Prior to starting the business we considered threats to the industry and virtual styling was the single threat that came to mind. I reckon virtual staging will only get better with time. It will never kill property styling though because of in-person viewing. I think it's most applicable when listing your property for rent. It's a fraction of the cost of property styling, and you can continue to use the photos every time there's a change of tenant. Especially useful to have on hand if you have messy tenants and you can't get good recent photos. If it can get you an extra $10-20/week by getting more potentials to the inspection, it'll easily pay itself off. Barny, you have to increase that initial furniture investment for a styling business. $30-50k only gets you 3-4 houses worth of furniture and accessories. If that. You can only install these so many times through the year. Keep in mind that there are quiet periods through the year and the furniture may spend 50% of the year in the warehouse. Once you factor in fixed costs, particularly a storage space, you need more furniture to sustain a single employee. At the end of the day I think it's like most small business. It can be quite profitable but it requires lots of hard work upfront.
Since posting this, I've continued to get ads from a virtual staging company. They need to keep their ads up to date. The ads say $32 per image, but when I click on the ad, it says $40 per image.
we tried this and couldnt produce an option that looked believable. We ended up buying stuff from a clearance outlet in Brisbane somewhere and it was affordable. we kept a bit of the gear and flicked the rest on facebook marketpplace after the move
I agree with the general statement. I have a girlfriend who quit her corporate job and set up her own staging company. She said it is indeed a lot of hardwork (lifting heavy things) but she is her own boss - she has a few casual staff helping her. She has been really busy as the demand for (physical) staging is strong - spring sale listing. I recently sold a 2 bed unit in the inner west and the staging cost nearly $6,500 - I know some will cough at this, but it also included (real, not fake) plants. It would be cheaper to buy the plants myself from Bunnings or a nursery and gift it to new owners. It was sold in less than 10 days before the auction. Two years ago, a small double story 3 bed house in Brisbane cost $5K to stage. Last year, a small double story 3 bed house in Melbourne cost almost $4K to stage but sale fell through, and a further $4.5K for a 2nd staging (I liked this one better).
An advert is a mere offer. You know the price when you seek to access the deal. Look at Qantas... $500 flights until you try to book a date you want and its $1200. It would be hard to allege its misleading and intentional. Hell walk into Coles or Woolies. They often get shelf tickets wrong (lower than scan) and to avoid mischief they give you the item free.
I used virtual staging this year Thought photos were amazing. Its great tool for a certain market, price point imo This property was in Perth at this time lots of eastern state investors buying up, still are Sold on first home open.
I'm thinking of jumping on the WA bandwagon, if it's not too late. Where's a good place to buy torrens titled with a budget of 400k?
