Here are some new methods sellers are using to attract buyers :
Virtual staging
The tried and true method of home staging with over stuffed rental furniture and some carefully placed candlesticks and wall art has a new partner, or perhaps new competitor – virtual staging. Thanks to Photoshop and other visual effects software, virtual staging companies can take an empty room, or a room with older furniture, and make it contemporary. Even adding light fixtures and different wall colors can be done at the click of a mouse.
Virtual staging really became popular during the recession, by helping banks and other homeowners attract buyers and move properties like foreclosures more quickly. It helped people visualize what could be there. And while a traditional stager can only do one look for a room at a time, a virtual stager can see how it all comes together as an ensemble. It also allows sellers to mix and match different styles of interiors with buyers.
Exterior virtual staging is also a growing field, showing how a house looks at daytime or nighttime, as well as summer, fall and winter. The cost is far less than real staging at about $100 a room, compared to as much as $5,000 a month for staging costs. A virtual stager can make a virtual room look imperceptible from an actually staged room, by careful use of shadowing and shading. Anyone can take some clip art and shop it into a photograph.
Of course, there are ethical key factors involved. While virtual stagers can swap out furniture, or remove garbage cans from an exterior shot, most say they won’t ever remove something permanent from a photo, such as a water tower.
If you do go with a virtual stager, like anything else, check the quality of their work and ask to see samples. Also, ensure that you and your agent are up front to buyers agents and buyers that what they see is what the home could look like, not how it does look like.
Drones
If you’re selling a home and want to show off its surroundings, consider a drone. In real estate, the three most important things are location, location, location. And using a drone is an easy way for properties to show off locations, whether the property is on a beach, near a golf course, or next to some other amenity.
Prices for drones range from $200 to $500 per shoot and can shoot still photography or full-motion video. Every single house has a story to tell that isn’t shown by traditional still photography. Often a drone can help a buyer too, by steering them away from a home where there are visual blights like water towers or electrical pylons.
Not every property can use a drone. Under FAA rules, the 6,000 plus commercial operators must be licensed pilots, can’t fly their drones higher than 400 feet and they can’t be more than five miles from an airport.
Drone operators advise consumers to look at the body of work before you buy. You’re not buying a pilot, you’re buying a visual marketer. Just because they know how to fly it, doesn’t mean they’ll do a good job showing off your house. As the client, you have creative control of what the drone can shoot, so use it to your advantage. A good pilot will work with a homeowner by doing a walk through and story boarding.
Keep in mind though, that like any photography, put your best foot forward but putting trash cans away, tying up hoses and putting toys in the garage. Still, just like a virtual stager, an ethical drone photographer won’t edit anything permanent out of the footage they shoot.
3-D Tours
If you don’t want to spend a day in a car going house to house looking at various properties, then 3D virtual tours are likely going to be a major boon to buyer, seller and Realtor. Soon, buyers will be able to walk through homes, either from their own home or an agent’s office. Realtors, who often have to pay their own way to drive clients, are some of the biggest proponents of 3D tours, which can help narrow down homes before they’re ever seen in person. In addition, 3D tours can improve safety for Realtors, who are often advised never to show a property after dark and always to tell their brokerage where they are and to have them check in regularly.
A 3-D tour costs about $200, though it could take long than a regular photo shoot, with about an hour for set-up and camerawork in each room. Turning the raw 360 degree footage into a 3D shoot takes about another two days.
