Staging your Boston condo for sale is becoming more popular with Boston real estate agents and homeowners. You take a room, you de-clutter it and remove all personal pictures and you rearrange the furniture to show off the condo at it’s best use. When potential Boston condo buyers walk in they are supposed to be able to imagine living in the space.
Real estate stagers will tell you that what you pay to stage your Boston condo is well worth it because a buyer is willing to pay a higher price for a space they understand, a space that has been painted and a space where the furniture is placed “just so.”
But how far is too far? With the current economic conditions and more and more sellers having less equity because of second mortgages, the expense of traditional staging can be a problem for some Boston condo owners. So about a year ago the idea of “virtual staging” came into play. Virtual staging allows the digital “furnishing” of an empty condo for the purposes of an online advertisement. They can see where the couch may fit, which way the dining room table should sit. The basic theory by those pushing this method is that it will help the buyers. See the photo above.
The ethical dilemma of virtual advertising a staged property is done through disclaimers in the remarks such as “this property has been virtually staged” and/or side by side pictures – before the virtual staging and after the virtual staging. Once again see the condo picture above.
The New York Times article touches on the subject of virtual staging, HERE.
What are your thoughts?
