Questions To Ask Before Hiring a Virtual Staging Company
Hiring a virtual home staging expert shouldn't be a stressful experience, which is why we're here to offer some insights and provide questions you can ask to ensure that you're starting the right partnership.
Virtual home staging is an effective and affordable way to sell a home fast, offering limitless creative control and innovative design to craft the perfect lived-in space for a potential buyer. Whether it's new colorways, switching up flooring, adding new furnishing, or updating decor — virtual staging can add a dynamic element to your marketing efforts.
What to Ask our Virtual Staging Company
When sifting through virtual staging experts for the best possible partnerships, there are some crucial questions you should be asking. These will help you get to know the company and its values, experience, and expertise for a better-informed decision. Obviously, you'll want to ask about their pricing — but what else should be on the docket? Let's dive in.
1. Have you and your team received Home Staging Training?
Virtual home staging is home staging done digitally. Regardless of the delivery, to be successful it requires a professional home stager able to enhance the visual marketing of a property. When it comes to staging decisions, the experience is the cornerstone for a successful sale. Ask about the training or education their team received in home staging. Whether it's formal training or accreditation by an established association, these certifications shed some light on their experience and expertise. You can also see if they specialize in custom design, specific looks, or luxury virtual home staging.
2. What's the Virtual Staging Process?
It's always best to stay informed about the ins and outs of how a virtual staging company goes about creating their finished designs. Ask about their process, and be specific. Here are some examples of what you should ask your virtual staging expert:
What goes into deciding which style best suits a property?
How do you choose decor and furnishing placements?
Do you manage virtual staging for outdoor spaces or landscaping needs?
Do you work from a digital catalog or are you custom design-focused?
Who will be working on your project (and what do their designs look like)?
These are just a few questions that help paint a picture of what you can expect from specific virtual design companies, giving you some insights into whether or not they're a good fit for selling the property.
3. Does the Work Get Outsourced?
Most virtual home stagers subcontract or outsource projects to photo-retouching companies overseas, which can cause a ton of issues down the road. These graphic designers operate in different countries with different time zones, making workflow and communications hard to complete without issues. More importantly, they lack an understanding and specialization of U.S. homes, buyers, and neighborhoods that could be crucial during the virtual staging process to reach the desired result and close a sale. A tip: if a virtual staging company charges $20-30 per picture and delivers in 24 hours, they are definitively outsourcing overseas.
4. Can I See Some Recent Work?
Getting your eyes on some of their most recent virtual staging projects will help you gain a better understanding of their current output. If possible, ask to see their three most recent virtually staged properties. We recommend ensuring that these projects are live, as it gives you a clearer picture of what you can expect when working with them. It saves you from a possible scenario where a company creates three brand new renders that don't reflect their true output.
If you want to take it one step further, head to the website (where the projects will be live) and contact the agent. You can ask for feedback on working with the virtual staging company, which will also be helpful in getting a feel for the type of client service they offer.
5. What's the Average Price of The Recent Properties You've Staged?
Asking about the price of the properties a company has virtually staged in the past year will give you an idea of what experience they have in a certain real estate market. If you're attempting to sell a luxury home or condo, you'll want to make sure the stager is an expert in targeting high-end home buyers. Certain niche markets require experience and specialization, so it's important to know if a staging company is prepared for your market and can captivate the target audience you're looking to sell to.
6. What's Your Turnaround Time on Projects?
We know that agents are looking for fast turnaround times, but the quicker a virtual staging project gets completed, the more red flags there are. If a virtual staging company promises a one-day turnaround — you can be sure they're not creating custom designs. Instead, they're relying on 3D sets or outsourcing their work overseas to underqualified photo-retouchers. While it's important to have a practical project timeframe, be wary of instant turnarounds as they come at the cost of quality. When investing in virtual staging, you want custom designs that encapsulate the look and feel of a home while also catering to a specific buyer market.
Everything about this staging is wrong.
The furniture quality cheapens the property. The scale of the furniture is off and its placement hides the stunning views and makes the space look smaller than it is.
Virtual Staging by Barion Design
What to Look For in a Virtual Staging Company
Once you've asked your fair share of questions, it's time to deliberate and decide if they're a good fit. If they possess the experience, specialization, quality, and referrals you're looking for — you're well on the way to finding the right fit for selling the property. However, there are some final "words to the wise" we'll leave you with to help you make the best decision possible.
Lookout for cookie-cutter designs that may leave the property looking stale and unoriginal. Instead, seek out custom virtual staging companies with a heavy design focus that offers unmatched flexibility and freedom when it comes to finding the right style, furnishings, and overall decor to fit a certain property. By nature, virtual staging gives real estate agents a ton of versatility — so why limit your options with cookie-cutter design catalogs?
Be wary of photo-retouching experts versus legitimate virtual home staging experts. While photo-retouching work has advanced spectacularly over the years, photo-realism is only part of what makes virtual staging successful. Virtual staging only works if it has the right staging design to appeal to the right home buyers.
Find the Virtual Staging Company For You
Ask the right questions before investing time and money into virtual staging efforts. There's nothing more frustrating than getting underwhelming results that could have been avoided with a little research.
Taking the time to get to know the company you're working with, their past projects, expertise, and overall values will give you peace of mind going forward and the confidence to sell properties using virtual staging.