Traditionally reliant on physical staging, residential real estate marketing is undergoing a digital revolution, and at the forefront of this is the introduction of virtual furniture staging powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
The evolution of real estate agent marketing has been greatly influenced by the shift from physical to virtual staging. Initially, real estate marketing relied heavily on physical staging, where spaces were set up for in-person viewings and photography.
In the US, real estate agents reported many benefits from this. Most importantly, the sale price of real estate increased by his 1% to 5%.
Rising popularity
But in recent years, virtual staging has skyrocketed in popularity, especially after the global pandemic prevented customers from seeing properties in person.
Unlike physical staging, virtual staging primarily uses software such as Adobe's Photoshop to enhance photos of empty rooms. This work has traditionally been performed by human graphic designers, but with the advent of AI technology, this process is rapidly changing.
AI virtual staging has resulted in significant cost savings and significant speed improvements compared to traditional virtual staging.
automatic generation
These efficiency gains are primarily due to the fact that virtual staging work is automatically generated rather than being manually developed by humans. Because of this, the industry is trending towards a future where most of the real estate images seen online are likely to be directed by AI.
Kitchen before AI staging.
From interviews with real estate agents and real estate photographers, it is clear that staging practices vary widely depending on the value of the property.
Kitchen equipped with AI furniture.
Almost 90% of agents I talk to use some form of staging, but agents with properties over $1 million (USD) typically prefer physical staging. In contrast, we find that agents with properties in the $400,000 to $1 million (USD) range typically choose traditional virtual staging.
simple staging
Properties under $400,000 (USD) are often not staged, but there is evidence to suggest that even simple staging can have a significant impact on a property's perceived value.
So while online images of properties over $1 million (USD) will likely continue to feature real furniture, online images of properties below $1 million (USD) will soon feature AI-powered furniture. You should expect that only generated furniture will be displayed.
Asset managers and property managers are also affected by these forces. Historically, large luxury condominiums have used physically staged model units or classic virtual staging. Conversely, cheaper properties may reuse the same virtual staged image across different floor plans because there were not enough cheap solutions to stage the property.
technology solutions
But now that costs are much lower, asset managers are increasingly asking property managers to find technology solutions that will attract prospective renters.
Living room before staging.
By leveraging generative AI models like Stable Diffusion, companies can now create realistic and visually appealing images of real estate.
Living room with AI furniture.
Launched in August 2022, Stable Diffusion is trained on the LAION dataset, which includes a library of interior design and furniture styles, allowing the AI to generate images that resonate with a property's features and potential buyers' preferences. It will look like this.
The next wave of AI image editing innovation in residential real estate agent marketing is set to transform the way properties are presented, but there's still quite a bit that still requires a human touch.
Highest quality
First, real estate photographers should continue to take photos of real estate. Second, high-end staging jobs that require the highest quality still require humans to strategically place furniture in a consistent manner across all images of a property.
In addition to image quality, real estate platforms will begin to explore dynamic staging techniques that allow them to change the furniture used in online images based on a prospect's preferences.
This personalization could be extended even further, allowing renters and buyers to direct their own images rather than relying on a platform, real estate agent or property manager.
Convenience and customization
Imagine the convenience and customization of being able to virtually place your own furniture or furniture found online into your online real estate listing with the click of a button.
The integration of AI into residential real estate marketing, especially through virtual staging, is a big trend that will continue to grow.
Looking to the future, it is expected that the majority of online property images will be rendered by AI, allowing more prospective buyers and renters to find the property of their dreams.
Lakshman Mody is the co-founder of Virtualstaging.Art
