Virtual Staging Struggles to Sell Real Estate

The Staging Collective, a growing organization of more than 45 leading staging companies in North America, sees the challenges that virtual staging creates for consumers in purchasing homes every day. Though there is growing investment in virtual and AI design tools, particularly at Zillow, this group of business owners know that virtually staged homes take longer to sell than homes being traditionally staged after lingering on the market virtually staged. 

Traditional staging creates an in-person sensory experience for buyers as they walk through homes. It invokes a lifestyle buyers aspire to that is curated and intentional in its presentation of the home’s assets. Virtual staging is designed to create attractive photographs but consumers report feeling duped when they arrive to empty or occupied homes that look nothing like the listing photos. Most buyers simply are not creating emotional or psychological connections to virtual homes. 

 This is a familiar experience for one of The Staging Collective’s founders, Anne Furlow, whose company, Step by Stage Interiors, provides luxury staging in Central Florida. “We had a listing recently that the realtor told us had been virtually staged (twice) and wasn’t selling,” reported Furlow. “We were brought in to provide a consultation and curate a real/traditional staging and the home sold immediately – after the first open house!” This is just one of numerous examples we’ve tracked Furlow stated where their traditional/real staging is consistently outperforming virtual staging in her market. “You get what you pay for,” says Furlow. 

The Staging Collective members collect data on their staged homes’ performance in their markets and are increasingly tracking the performance of virtual staging. One member, Lori Bitter of Napa, California’s Dalia Staging & Design, spent the last year tracking the performance of virtual staging in her market. The findings are bleak. While her actual staged homes are selling up to three weeks faster than un-staged homes in the market, from the data Bitter has tracked the virtually staged homes are sitting; most take two to three weeks longer to sell than un-staged properties. 

Lest anyone think this collective of high achieving stagers are luddites when it comes to artificial intelligence tools, nothing could be further from the truth. Melinda Christman, partner in Olive + Opal Interiors in St. Louis, Missouri, and a Collective founder, says, “Like a lot of our members, we’ve started using AI to take some of the busywork off our plates so we can focus on what we actually love — staging and design. It’s been a game-changer for quick writing tasks in marketing or client communication, and we’re constantly swapping ideas on how to use it responsibly and effectively in our businesses.”