RISMEDIA, April 28, 2009-Home staging, long recognized as one of the most effective means of capturing a potential buyer’s interest, gets its own makeover with the arrival of Virtually Staging Properties (“VSP”). Through a combination of a patent pending process and a proprietary library of thousands of images of real furnishings, VSP offers a new-technology solution to transform vacant online listings into warm, inviting, fully-staged homes, with a realism and authenticity unmatched by any other solution.
Developed by a professional home stager, Realtor® and graphic designer, Virtually Staging Properties offers an affordable vacant-home marketing solution for a fraction of the cost of traditional staging. For an investment of as little as $225, the seller or agent can have their boring, ‘empty box’ listing photos transformed into warm and inviting photos that generate more buyer traffic and leave nothing to their imagination. Flyers and/or enlargements of the photos can be posted on site so that when buyers arrive at the subject property, the “staged” photographs provide the needed warmth, vision and inspiration.
“This service represents a new alternative for staging vacant properties,” said Krisztina Bell, co-founder. “For agents, brokers or banks with vacant real estate to sell who, for whatever reason, are not engaging traditional staging methods, virtual staging provides an extremely cost-effective and highly professional marketing solution. It is a perfect example of how new technology can help sell homes, even in today’s difficult market.”
The founders of VSP, Krisztina and Jay Bell, have significant experience from traditionally staging more than 100 vacant properties last year via their growing staging business. The company has developed a proprietary virtual library of furnishings and accessories, which when utilized within its patent pending Virtually Staging Properties process, can transform the vacant listing photos provided by the agent or seller into professionally-designed interiors that are almost indistinguishable from traditionally decorated living spaces.
“There are literally hundreds of thousands of vacant homes on the market nationwide. Nearly all of them have an ‘empty box’ appearance and look just like the next one, and the next one after that. If you were trying to sell a vacant property, wouldn’t you want it to stand out from the crowd for some reason other than having the lowest price? To date, computer generated images and CAD programs have provided a partial solution, however, these alternatives tend to be far more expensive, less realistic and, frankly, less accurate.” says co-founder Jay Bell. “From our experience, rooms with life-like, warm and inviting furnishings make a far more favorable impression with potential buyers, 87+% of whom search the Internet for their next new home.”
The Virtually Staging Properties service is available in three packages of three, four or five ‘staged’ photographs, with a total package price of $225, $280 and $325 respectively. Additional rooms can be added for just $60 per photo. As you would expect, in accordance with sound business ethics, VSP does not utilize its design service to hide flaws or mis-represent the subject property.
“While there will always be strong demand for traditional home staging, this virtual technology is an affordable solution for agents or cash-strapped sellers who want to turn listing views into real buyer traffic,” explains Krisztina Bell.
To view before and after examples, and for more information on the new service, go to www.virtuallystagingproperties.com or call 404-949-9797.
