What is Virtual Staging?
Months ago, when all the behind-the-scenes chatter was happening about Jacobs Steel’s major rebrand, the idea of JS Signature was born. The Signature service is aimed at securing a sale for exclusive properties, so we wanted to ensure that the package and service was just as exclusive.
When it comes to selling vacant properties, It can be tough because viewers struggle to visualise what it would look like once filled with furniture and how to fill the empty space. That’s why we decided to include virtual staging within the Signature package.
Virtual furnishing, or virtual staging, is a process where photorealistic furniture is inserted in to a still image. It allows empty properties to be showcased effectively to demonstrate scale, style and vision. The actual property remains empty, but prospective buyers are more able to imagine a lived-in home.
Make an Impact
We carefully examined which companies offered the same level of top-class service and results that Jacobs Steel strive to achieve; and we chose to work with property marketing specialist, GD Impact.
GD Impact launched their virtual furnishing service in Spring 2017, after learning the costs and logistics involved with physically dressing properties. It became their most popular product within just 8 months of the launch.
Talking about the process, Ross Gumbrell, Director of GD Impact explained, “Rather than physically dressing a property, modelling and rendering software is used to underlay a 2D image into a 3D space. Light sources such as windows, ambient light and flash units are marked in the 3D space to accurately produce shadows.”
We’re amazed at the process and the result is almost indistinguishable from a real photo, as we’re sure you’ll agree!
And that’s how it’s done!
Ross went in to some detail with us about how they conduct a virtual staging visit.
“We start by visiting the vacant property and measuring the layout, producing a floor plan on site. Thought is given for the likely layout a homeowner or tenant would place their own furniture within the property; and this is marked on the hand drawn plan.
Photography is carried out with the view that the furniture is present in the property. This includes consideration of angles, composition and lighting placement. After some technical wizardry, we take a look through our furniture library and match objects that are fitting to the size and style of the property. Furniture is inserted into images and the images are left overnight to render the shadows, reflections and textures as a batch process.”
Within just 72 hours of their initial visit, GD Impact provide us with their impressive results; which includes imagery of the empty property, imagery of the virtually furnished rooms and a furniture free floor plan of the property.
Why should I choose to virtually stage my property?
Hopefully we’ve shown you why this product is such an amazing addition to our Signature service, but here’s some quick stats:
- According to Rightmove sales stats, on average, a staged property benefits from an 8% increase in perceived value compared to a non-staged property.
- The average cost to physically stage a property is 1.5% of the property value. Our goal is to achieve this digitally at a 90% cost reduction.
- Virtually furnishing a property removes the logistical aspect of moving physical furniture into the property.
- An empty room with a staged photo reference encourages discussion amongst prospective buyers / tenants about how they would place their own furniture whilst showing off the size of the space more effectively.
