Virtual Staging AI revolutionizes the’home staging in the real estate industry

Home staging is a significant element in real estate. Traditionally, real estate agents have physically staged homes before listing them, but this process is expensive and time-consuming. However, thanks to the advent ofArtificial Intelligence, a company called Virtual Staging AI is changing the rules of the game, allowing real estate agents to virtually furnish a home in seconds.

The potential of Virtual Staging AI

Virtual Staging AI, part of the Harvard Innovation Labs, currently has 4,500 monthly subscribers and aims to transform thereal estate andinterior designindustry. In just 10 months, the startup has achieved annual sales of $1 million, generating more than half a million renderings per month.

The idea for Virtual Staging AI was born when co-founder and CEO, Michael Bonacina, was looking for an apartment in Boston to attend Harvard. While searching, he found an ad that allowed users to imagine what the furnished space would look like. This experience inspired Bonacina, who had an interest in computer vision, to create an even better experience for real estate agents, and that is how Virtual Staging AI was born.

The Virtual Staging AI technology

The Virtual Staging AI tool allows real estate agents to add furniture to images of empty rooms in seconds. Instead of sharing images of empty rooms in a listing, the tool provides real estate agents with realistic images of furnished rooms. Agents can turn an empty room into a bedroom, living room, office, game room, and so on.

In addition, agents can use the tool to remove furniture from images and replace it with different furniture. For example, if an image shows mismatched furniture, the Virtual Staging AI tool can remove it and replace it with modern furniture.

If you are not satisfied with the result of an image, you can make the desired changes as many times as you wish.

Bonacina acknowledges that although there are many AI tools on the market for image generation, they cannot be applied to real estate or virtual home staging, as only a limited number of elements in an image can be changed while maintaining the veracity of the property.

How it works

The Virtual Staging AI model can analyze the three-dimensional structure of a room and understand the location of the floor, ceiling, mirrors, and doors. The AI model then chooses the most suitable furniture based on the real estate agent’s preferences.

While real estate agents might hire someone to digitally furnish a room using tools such as Photoshop, Virtual Staging AI promises a cheaper and faster way to do so. The startup’s cheapest plan costs $12 a month and includes six photos, while the most expensive plan costs $69 a month and offers 250 photos.

Bonacina says it was important for the startup to create an easy-to-use tool compared to other generative AI tools. According to the National Association of Realtors, the average age of all real estate agents in the United States is 60, which is why the company wanted to create an easy and accessible tool for all real estate agents.

The future of virtual home staging

Virtual Staging AI has not yet secured outside funding, but Bonacina and Andreev have raised $250,000 from personal funds, friends and family to launch the startup. The real estate industry continues to evolve over the years from just site visits to virtual visits. So it is not surprising that Artificial Intelligence, which has transformed industries such as health care and robotics, is bringing innovations to the real estate world as well.