Home staging is proven to be quite effective in selling a home, with 83 per cent of agents saying that it makes visualising property as their future home easier for buyers*.
Are you a new agent wondering how this works? Let’s delve into the basics of how YOU can stage your client’s property. And how you can take advantage of technology to virtually stage a property in the UAE!
What Is Property Staging?
Property staging is the act of preparing a property to appeal to a wide range of potential buyers. It’s how a realtor can show off the best parts of the house and get the highest price for it.
Think of it from the shoes of a property seeker: what listing would catch your attention – an empty apartment or one that is tastefully decorated?
That’s right, the second one! It doesn’t matter if the furniture used is designer or second-hand; having a table here and a chair makes a big difference in the eyes of a potential buyer.
Tips For Staging A House
Are you considering staging a house in the UAE for sale for the first time? Here are some things to keep in mind to stage it to perfection:
Think Like An Interior Designer
Pick the features of the house that you want to highlight and those you want to minimise. For example, if the house you’re trying to sell is small, add a rug in the centre, a few mirror pieces on the walls and make sure the furniture isn’t touching the walls. This makes rooms look much bigger on camera.
If you’ve got a bright house, accentuate it with open windows and lighter-coloured sofas (think, yellow or white). Look up inspiration for furnishing on Architectural Digest (a popular magazine on architecture and decor) or scroll through Pinterest. You can find several resources that offer tips on decor for beginners. Make the most of these resources.
Declutter And De-Personalise
Too many items scattered around a house isn’t exactly what you would call ‘appealing’. Make sure you take all the extra stuff lying around the house away before taking a picture. It could be a few unwashed dishes in the kitchen, some extra cushions lying around or old ottomans on the floor.
To make it easier for potential buyers to imagine themselves in their future homes, remove any personal belongings of the owners. This could be photographs, posters, toiletries, bath items, fridge magnets, books and more. Think of it as neutralising a house and making it appeal to a wider audience.
Clean Up The House
Ensure the house is mopped, vacuumed and cleaned. Dust mites or visible dirt on the ground are not attractive to a potential buyer. Deep cleaning often also ensures the house is always viewing-ready, even when you aren’t around.
Balancing Minimalism And Decor
Although minimalism works by embracing empty spaces, too many of those empty space can make the house seem like a ‘dead space’. Add an interesting piece of decor, like a bookshelf or plant, to spruce up the place if you have too many empty spaces.
Understand Your Buyers
If you’re working with a property in a community of interest to families, stage the house in a way that appeals to them. Create a ‘children’s room’ area, with a cradle or with a rocking horse. Or, if you are working with property for working individuals, you could stage a small work area, with a desk and a table light. It’s all about knowing the area better. Use resources like building guides and area guides to understand the area better, so you can make these decisions.
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‘Hacking’ Staging – With Technology!
If you don’t have enough resources to stage a property, you can still use technology to amplify the house. We’re talking about virtual staging, where you can use software to create a simulated photorealistic space. It is much cheaper than physically staging a space, takes less time and effort, and definitely can change how a property looks.
Some popular software you can use includes:
- Virtual Staging Solutions
- Visual Stager
- VRX Staging
- Virtually Staging Properties
- Virtual Staging Lab
- PadStyler
- HomeStyler
- iStaging
If you have a graphic designer on your team, you could use their expertise to have your property virtually staged for listing online.
Virtual Staging Using AI
Another option for virtual staging is using Virtual Staging AI, or VSAI. While all the services listed above involve a graphic designer editing your property’s pictures manually, with AI all you need to do is upload a picture of your photograph on the site and it stages the property’s pictures within minutes.
An obvious advantage of using Virtual Staging AI is that the turnaround time is a lot faster (barely 5 minutes). In comparison, other services would require an average of one day to get your property pictures staged. Another advantage is that you can request multiple revisions for free – which is great if you’re picky about how you want your property to look.
VSAI’s interface is similar to that of DropBox or Google Drive – all you have to do is drag an drop high-definition photos of the rooms that you want staged. Select what the room type is from the drop down – is it a bathroom, or a kitchen, or a bedroom.
A snapshot from Virtual Staging AI site
Apart from Virtual Staging AI, the first, and most popular VSAI platform among real estate professionals at the moment, there are a few growing AI virtual staging sites gaining interest in the market, including:
However, do keep in mind that with AI virtual staging, there are chances of the perspectives getting skewed – we would recommend that users keep their eyes out for these errors before using them on your listing.
Improving the quality of your listing can do wonders for getting more leads and closing more deals. One of those ways is staging, which makes a world of difference in the pictures. Take better pictures, improve descriptions and titles and validate your listings to get them higher on the search results. You can check out our guide on improving listing quality to learn more.
Find out ways you can excel in the real estate industry with our treasury of resources on our exclusive Content Corner on the Agent Portal. In addition, can also attend our interactive workshops at Bayut Academy, where we host interactive sessions for agents in the city.
* According to a study by the National Association of Realtors.