Category: Real Estate Photo Editing

  • Effectively Using iPhone 14 to Take Professional Real Estate Photos

    Effectively Using iPhone 14 to Take Professional Real Estate Photos

    Digital technology has significantly improved how we do things, from photography to real estate video editing. Before smartphones, taking great images took a lot of time and effort to share pictures online. Nowadays, bringing hefty cameras and lenses is a burden due to their size and weight. 

    The newest iPhone 14 captures high-quality photos and does your real estate editing so that you won’t need cameras or laptops! For best results, you can have professionally-done photo editing to complement the work you’ve done so far.

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    These are pointers on how to produce great real estate images with your iPhone 14:

    1. Make use of natural light

    We’re all aware that we need light to shoot images. If you want to snap photographs outside during the day, you may feel that light is the least of your problems. While this is somewhat correct, natural outdoor lighting impacts the photograph’s overall aesthetic, especially in real estate photo editing. 

    Natural light has various properties; it may exude warm or chilly tones or mild or harsh. While you can edit the tones and lighting in Photoshop, your photography can benefit from excellent use of natural light, especially for outdoor shots.

    External circumstances like the weather and the time of day determine the light quality. With the iPhone 14, taking photos with natural light is recommended, and it avoids being over-exposed (just like when using flash). The iPhone 14 gives the feeling of having its own real estate photo editing service. 

    2. Maintain your grip

    Having steady hands is crucial when taking photos because it helps prevent blurry images and allows you to have the best quality ready for real estate photo editing. iPhone 14 has camera stabilization called Optical Image Stabilization (OIS).

    If you are not using a tripod, you can tuck your elbows in for balance and use two hands to capture photos. You may also adjust your shutter speed to your desire for finer images, especially when you’re preparing for real estate editing.

    3. Look for diverse viewpoints

    Taking photos from the same angle may look dull. Capturing pictures from different angles will significantly help you when using real estate video editing. Your potential customers will be more excited to view the property as it captivates them.

    The most basic angles you can try are: 

    • Standing Level
    • Wide-angle property shot
    • High Angle

    Don’t worry if you cannot perfect it on your first try. Practice your angle shots, and you can get the hang of it over time.

    4. Take note of your image composition

    Every space is unique, and there is no set formula for filming on location. The most straightforward technique to get the finest composition for your photograph is to stroll around and determine which perspective points are appropriate for the particular room before real estate editing. 

    Typically, the most fantastic spot to put up your tripod is from the corners or from an angle that best conveys the space. A professional would snap shots from more than one vantage point so that the chances are in their favor when they look at their images in post-processing.

    5. Use the zoom function

    The current iPhone 14 Pro camera zoom is the best it has ever been. For the first time, Apple offers 2x and 3x optical zoom. To zoom in and out, pinch the screen. After determining the best perspective and focusing on the property, you can zoom in to make the property’s details more evident and distinct, even without a real estate photo editing service.

    6. Check out the Live Photo option

    With Apple’s live photographs, you can easily capture the perfect shot for your real estate photo editing service. They put your images to life by converting them into gif-like 1.5-second films that capture the moments before and after you take a shot.

    Instead of a single static image, it records real-life movement and background sound, allowing you to select the perfect moment in time for your finest photograph and best viewpoint of the property.

    7. Return to the same area at various times of day

    Because of the iPhone 14’s excellent low-light capabilities, you can capture shots outside midday and not compromise the quality of real estate photo editing. Sunrises and sunsets are often darker, but they may reward you with gorgeous sky colors and fantastic lighting contrast.

    If you have additional time, it’s worth doing a twilight shot at least once for the property, and this will set your photographs apart from those of other real estate brokers.

    8. Crop your images for better results

    You may take an image and then discover anything in it that you wish to trim out. A simple real estate photo editing will do the trick. To utilize the Crop function, open the image from the camera roll and click Edit. The crop tool is located at the bottom. Click on it, and then move the image’s sides or corners to anywhere you like. Suppose your horizon is skewed; spin and straighten it with two fingers. Alternatively, you may use the dial just below the image.

    9. Create videos

    These days, potential buyers want to see the property, so most sellers create videos like a house tour. Real estate agencies who use video listings on their websites receive 400% more leads than those who do not. According to a recent poll (National Association of Realtors), 73% of sellers prefer to list with an agency that employs video listings. real estate videos may only deliver a wealth of information.

    Customers may view room size, location, floor layout, and other property aspects without extensive research. It also makes sense to develop a teaser video to captivate and show them its benefits. Luckily, the iPhone 14 can capture superior videos and prime settings for your real estate video editing.  

    Bottomline

    The iPhone 14 provides options on how you want your memorable photos to be. It offers a variety of set-ups for your real estate photography essentials. It is user-friendly, and this guide will help you get more property leads.

  • 10 Useful Tips on Starting a Real Estate Virtual Staging Business

    10 Useful Tips on Starting a Real Estate Virtual Staging Business

    Information technology makes everyday transactions faster and better. Several industries are steadily migrating into the digital space, and real estate is no exception, as more people are relying on the Internet to bring solutions to their problems. Recent statistics say that most buyers find their next home online.

    Therefore, with the ever-increasing real estate market demand in the digital space, it’s a great time to start a virtual staging business and help home sellers attract potential buyers. This post will talk about helpful tips entrepreneurs can do to get started.

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    Real Estate Virtual Staging

    You may ask yourself, how do I start a virtual staging business? The simple answer lies in knowing what you want and finding ways to achieve them. The real estate industry has an increasing need for graphics, creatives, and marketing businesses.

    There’s no denying that the digital space has opportunities and potential clients. A 2021 study by the National Association of Realtors found that for real estate, in particular, 41% of home buyers decided to look at properties online, and 95% of home buyers used online tools to search.

    Here are some of the essential tips on establishing a real estate virtual staging company:

    1. Check for demand

    Your business will aim to supply a demand, so you need to know who will be giving your profit. Before you start a staging business, you need to survey if there’s a market for the service or products you plan to offer. You can ask people in the real estate industry and those looking to buy or sell properties in the future.

    There are many ways to look for demand. For example, you can do an informal survey asking how they edit real estate photos and give hypothetical offers of $50 virtual staging or a $75 total package. Your respondents will provide you with an idea of their needs and budget.

    2. Plan ahead

    After establishing product or service demand, the next step is to set up a business plan with objectives, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) research. Your company’s long-term and short-term goals will serve as a map that guides your entire journey as a virtual staging business.

    Here are the steps on how to write a business plan:

    • Construct an executive summary. You write this last, but this goes on the first page.
    • Create a company profile describing your establishment.
    • Write down your long-term business goals.
    • Talk about your products and services in as much detail as possible, including pricing and packaging.
    • Outline a sales and marketing plan.
    • Make a business financial estimation to generate projections.
    • Add attachments, research, and case studies in the appendix section.

    Your objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timebound (SMART). For example, you want to earn a net profit of $500 in revenue within the first month of operation by offering 50 virtual staging photos at $18.

    The SWOT analysis offers insight into your advantages, disadvantages, competitors, and openings. You can strategize your services, pricing, and operational frequency on this information.

    3. Find the right talent

    You may wonder, how do I start a virtual staging business after the planning stage? The next step is finding suitable people to help with business operations, client management, and creative execution. You won’t get started or scale successfully without the right people on your team.

    You can get a recruiter or agency to help you get the right help. In the meantime, you can outsource your needs to a company that offers the same services.

    4. Use virtual staging software or apps

    If you don’t have an entire artist team or can’t afford to hire an internal team, you can start by familiarizing yourself with virtual staging apps. These applications will show you the different standards from other staging companies. Aside from that, they could help you with your actual output.

    Virtual staging applications and programs allow you to edit real estate photos quickly without the help of graphic designers. Because these are often automated or pre-made, they may not look realistic, so hiring professionals is still better for long-term success.

    5. Cultivate partnerships

    There’s a saying that no man can survive alone, which also applies to businesses. Companies can’t make all sales, marketing, and executive functions without the necessary expenses. Partnerships allow your business to operate on x-deal or service exchange instead of cash payment to prioritize your capital on other efforts.

    For example, suppose you’re starting and have a great lead generation system. In that case, you could outsource part of your business process to an external company in exchange for your expertise.

    6. Build a sales funnel

    The next step is creating a sales funnel. Don’t start a staging business without considering the clients, which means making a funnel for your potential clients. It will act as a collection to conversion method based on the Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) model that taps into the consumer’s mind.

    Here are some sales funnel tips:

    • Build a company website and social media profiles.
    • Post relevant topics to generate leads.
    • Create attractive images and offers.
    • Give discounts, freebies, and incentives for trying your products or services.
    • Have clients book a free consultation or call so you can pitch how you can help them.
    • Retain the client with excellent customer care and assistance after availing of a product or service.

    Outline the demographic profile to make the correct funnel for your virtual staging business. Creating the funnel will let you maximize every opportunity so that you don’t waste any time, effort, or money in the process.

    7. Improve current offers

    There are hundreds of agencies offering almost the same products and services. Your firm will stay competitive by updating and modifying offers from time to time. Customer satisfaction is a top priority for every successful company, so you must work on your retention and sales methods.

    8. Add in-demand complementary services and products

    Upon conception, when you ask how do I start a virtual staging business? You are only thinking about the opening steps. The next factor is upselling your current requests with other complementary services to increase profits and give you a competitive edge.

    For example, offer discounted image decluttering, lawn removal, copywriting, or virtual twilight with your virtual staging service. Finding ways to serve your clients better than competitors will ensure high profits, retention, and scaling.

    9. Invest in marketing efforts

    Solid branding will make the customers come to you, and that’s where marketing comes to play. Create an excellent identity that clients will recognize and patronize, then ramp up your lead generation and exposure with social media efforts.

    However, some businessmen don’t understand the value of marketing, so you mustn’t make the same mistake. You need to finance marketing efforts with a budget of around 1 to 5% of your expected revenue. It may be better to have a dedicated marketing team.

    Here are some marketing efforts that new small businesses can make:

    • Email marketing via newsletter campaigns
    • Organic social media efforts and advertising through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, and Tiktok. Each platform caters to different demographics and markets.
    • Free ebooks and coaching
    • Google My Business and Adwords
    • Content marketing
    • Search engine optimization (SEO)
    • Use chatbots for social media platforms and your website
    • Offer free consultation services
    • Traditional media advertising if you’re a solid local business hoping to get customers in your city
    • Write articles on other websites or blogs
    • Attend mixers and functions for potential partners or clients

    Marketing can help you spend less time finding customers and letting them pursue you instead. Marketing works hand in hand with your sales funnel, so you should strategize your campaigns accordingly.

    10. Maintain good relationships with your network

    Every successful virtual staging business has excellent relationships with partners and clients. People are likelier to recommend companies that have given them terrific service on top of a fruitful collaboration, so be sure to invest in reliable customer service.

    Always ask for feedback or testimonials after every project. Reviews will help you learn how to service your clients better and improve your output standards. Aside from that, those opinions will make other people trust your services enough to try them themselves.

    Therefore, you should keep close tabs on your previous clients, networks, and connections. Send them emails or messages from time to time to maintain that rapport. Invest in automated emails as you grow your client base.

    Bottomline

    A real estate virtual staging business is a promising endeavor with high demand. As long as you set the proper foundation, you don’t need much entrepreneurial experience to start a staging business with impressive lead generation, marketing, and client care skills.

    The competitive real estate photography post-production services are cutthroat, and you don’t need to find graphic talent immediately. Once you partner with reliable service providers like Phixer or other real estate editors, you will gain confidence in your quality and client retention ability.

  • How to Stage Your Rooms for Amazing Virtual Staging Results

    How to Stage Your Rooms for Amazing Virtual Staging Results

    Real estate marketing is quickly evolving, with consumers finding multiple options with a few clicks and taps. Digital listings and social media platforms have made finding, buying, and selling real estate properties both easier and harder at the same time. More effortless due to the convenience of seeing all the offers without leaving your home, yet more challenging because several prospects are readily available.

    Real estate agents compete on several listing websites and turn to experts for help. Virtual or digital home staging is one of the proven conversion methods of real estate marketing. This blog post will discuss virtual staging and how you can prepare your property for a photoshoot.

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    However, people ask how to do virtual staging without knowing why they have to do it. Before telling you how to set and style your home for a pre-virtual staging photoshoot, we’ll answer that question first.

    Why You Need to Stage

    Virtual staging is one of the many creative ways to present your real estate property to potential customers or buyers. Similar to showroom techniques developed by real estate companies, virtual staging reimagines a room, home, or property according to the target audience or demographic.

    Digital staging is more cost-efficient than showroom decorating or actual home staging because you don’t have to buy new furniture or remodel the rooms. The cost for virtual staging is merely a fraction of what developers used to spend for illustrative home constructions. The next question would be, “how do you do virtual staging effectively?”

    There’s an art to perfecting virtual staging. For starters, you have to prepare the spaces for the shoot. After which, you must find the perfect editor, app, or software to bring your virtual staging fantasy to life.

    Preparing for Virtual Staging

    You should design the entire virtual staging look before you take photos of your property. You need to know how virtual staging could affect your target buyer markets. The guiding principle is to reduce the amount of editing on the digital stage.

    Here are some ways to plan for virtual staging:

    • List down your property’s and neighborhood’s best features. Those qualities will be some of the many reasons your client will purchase that property. Those features will reflect the possible demographics, so ensure you take note of them before your virtual staging.
    • Set a target demographic and create a buyer profile. Would your potential buyers be male or female? Would they be living alone or with family? Would they need space for a home office? Would they prefer a furnished or unfurnished home?
    • Find inspiration online. It would help to know specific pegs before doing a photoshoot. This method would also improve your chances of getting the results you want when sending your raw images to professional real estate editors.
    • Suitable photography equipment. You may opt to hire a real estate photographer or do it yourself with proper guidance from the virtual stagers. Either way, you need to include equipment in your plan considerations.
    • Find a virtual staging company. You should know who will do your virtual staging as early as the planning stage. It would help if you knew how to do it yourself, but plenty of virtual staging companies are available online.

    Once you’ve mapped out what you want and how to achieve them, it’s time to prepare the photoshoot areas appropriately.

    Rooms to Stage

    Prioritize the spaces you need to shoot because you won’t have the time or energy to do everything. You don’t need to orchestrate the entire house since your target market is more inclined to look at critical areas rather than the whole property or home.

    prepare room for virtual staging

    According to the National Association of Realtors, these are the areas you need to stage for real estate listings in order of importance:

    1. Living room or receiving area
    2. Master bedroom or the largest bedroom
    3. Kitchen or pantry
    4. Dining area
    5. Outdoor or yard
    6. Bathroom or comfort room

    Targeting specific parts of the house will improve your chances of landing a client from the listing alone. However, you also need to prepare even the rooms you’re not planning to style since you may get potential visits.

    Photoshoot Preparations

    After planning it all out, it’s time for the nitty gritty. You need to prepare the rooms and areas you want to stage for the shoot, whether you’re doing photoshoots yourself or employing the help of professionals. Physically preparing the spaces will lessen the time needed for virtual staging edits or reworks.

    Here are some of the ways to visually orchestrate the rooms for virtual staging:

    General

    Clean the house as much as you possibly can. Even if you can virtually edit items and furniture, you should declutter the area to ensure a smooth virtual staging process. Trash and other unwanted objects would cost extra to remove during the virtual staging process; they may interfere with lighting and cause awkward shadows in post-production.

    There are ways how to do virtual staging, effectively clearing things, but you should still remove personal effects and decor.

    Indoors

    Do a quick inspection of every room in the house to determine the ones you can submit for virtual staging and those you can do minor edits on. Remember that even when you put an image through post-production, your listing photo shouldn’t look too fake, or it may put off potential buyers.

    Here are some of the tasks you should do before the pre-virtual staging photography session:

    • Remove personal items and effects, especially photos or portraits.
    • Clean and scrub the floors.
    • Check and repair the walls.
    • Rearrange the furniture to open up the space.
    • Open or remove the curtains to expose the windows to full sunlight.

    The indoor preparations often involve removal rather than replacement because the edits usually take care of adding items. You should clear the space by creating a blank canvas for your virtual staging.

    Outdoors

    Check the curb appeal since most people click on a listing with an attractive overall appearance. Aside from that, it would help if you also prepared your outdoors for a possible potential buyer visit since first impressions last. An excellent first impression could be the defining factor between an almost-purchase and a closed deal.

    Here are some of the preparations you need to do on the property’s surroundings:

    • Trim the bushes and mow the grass.
    • Clean the pavement and walkways.
    • Repair the cracks or faded paints.
    • Inspect and fix the roof.
    • Rake and clear the leaves.
    • Arrange the plants and flower pots.
    • Repaint the front door and porch if needed.

    Most people don’t virtually stage outside their property unless through lawn replacement or virtual twilight, but it may end up looking disappointing when the potential buyer finally tries to visit.

    Camera Settings

    Employ a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) High Dynamic Range (HDR) camera with a feature of bracketing exposure to prepare for virtual staging. The camera does half the work, so it should be suitable for the planned post-production treatment.

    camera settings for virtual staging

    Here are some important reminders when shooting photos before virtual staging:

    • Shoot in landscape.
    • For indoors, the room should take up 2/3, and the ceiling should be 1/3 of the picture.
    • Use minimum 18mm and maximum 200mm lenses, and avoid stylized, distorted, or warped ones.
    • Make use of HDR at different exposure levels.
    • Use external lighting instead of the built-in flash unless you want rigid shadow effects for virtual twilight.

    If unsure about your camera settings, do test shots on specific areas with your tripod to estimate how each space would look.

    Time Your Photoshoot Perfectly

    For real estate photos in general, you should target the time closest to noon or the hour that the sun is at its highest or brightest in the sky. The sun’s natural lighting will improve your image’s post-production results. Taking indoor photos with a bright sun will also cast dramatic shadows and make the room look wider.

    Influencers on Instagram are obsessed with the golden hour, the sweet spot, an hour before sunset, or the hour after sunrise. The golden hour is excellent if you plan to do twilight shots and create an eye-catching and picturesque main listing photo. Just be careful that you don’t underexpose your photo’s lighting during this time.

    Make Sure Photos are in High Quality

    Finally, you should use high-quality raw photos, especially when planning to stage them virtually afterward. The high definition would improve your image in the final photograph, and it’s easy to adjust natural pictures in HD than in lower ones.

    Having low-quality photos would interfere with how you do virtual staging, mainly because anything externally rendered or added would look fake on your real estate listing. Aside from that, sending over low resolution would result to even lower resolution after edits.

    Bottomline

    These days, you can tell how virtual staging affects the real estate buying market, with 95% of buyers browsing through online platforms and 40% of buyers setting appointments after seeing homes staged virtually. Professionally-made real estate virtual staging images are gradually becoming part of real estate marketing standards, and Phixer offers high-quality outputs for attractive listing photos.

  • How is Photo Manipulation Different or Similar to Photo Editing?

    How is Photo Manipulation Different or Similar to Photo Editing?

    The onset of digital technology has forever changed the way we process photographs. The days of processing images through films in darkrooms are over, as Digital Single-lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras have become the standard for photography. Computer programs and phone apps have also improved how quickly people can communicate, send or show pictures.

    Photo manipulation and editing have also progressed with digital cameras, as most real estate post-production companies would only take a few days to accommodate your order. There are differences in how various companies treat real estate photos, whether through manipulation or editing.

    When hearing about the different post-production methods, you may wonder, “Are photo editing and photo manipulation just the same?” Read on to learn more about the differences and similarities between photo editing and photo manipulation.

    Photo Manipulation

    First off, what is photo manipulation? Photo manipulation is the alteration or improvement of a photo by adding, replacing, and transforming various elements in the photograph. The modification could be as minor as replacing the sky or something significant, like creating new objects or features from scratch. These changes could be subtle or glaring depending on their purpose and creative vision.

    The best photo professionally-done manipulations look as natural as possible, using elements that one would typically find in such environments. In real estate photography, innovative post-production techniques like creating twilight, replacing lawns, or virtual staging can be considered photo manipulations depending on the project specifics.

    Let’s define photo editing before going into the similarities and differences.

    Photo Editing

    Photo editing is post-processing an image through software or program to enhance, improve and adjust the visual effect. Photo editing involves a wide range of tonal, brightness, contrast, shadow, spot, hue, tint, color balance, and other adjustments to help achieve your vision.

    Current technology makes photo editing so readily accessible that you can even do it on your smartphone. Most phone apps have preset hue, tint, color, or saturation filters that accomplish specific looks or moods that are impossible to set on a camera.

    At this point, you may wonder, “how do you differentiate photo manipulation from photo editing?” If you want simple terms to help understand the difference, photo manipulation means creation, while photo editing implies improvement.

    Differences

    Most people consider any post-production treatment photo editing, especially with flawless professional photo manipulations. There’s also a taboo regarding photo manipulation since people often expect pictures to be realistic rather than stylized.

    Here are some of the critical differences between photo manipulation and photo editing:

    Raw image elements

    If you want to know what is the difference between photo editing and photo manipulation, the first answer is straightforward: the original image elements. If the original image is an exact copy of the treated image but has a different lighting or color balance, it falls under photo editing. Photo editing doesn’t change what’s inside the photo since it only adjusts the lighting, colors, mood, or temperature.

    Photo manipulation alters reality. In the case of real estate photography, you may need photo manipulation to remove trash or unwanted objects in the background that your photographer missed during the shoot. Sometimes, you may want to remove sensitive information like a house number or visible address that is in the original photo.

    You know the image underwent photo manipulation when it’s missing some of the original image elements or if it has new details.

    Image layers

    One subtle way to determine an edited or manipulated image is by checking the layers. An edited photo has only one layer, while a manipulated photo has several layers depending on how many added or removed elements. It’s often subtle yet still noticeable due to light and color patterns.

    Here are some tips on checking the photo manipulation layers:

    • Watch out for misplaced sharp and blurred edges or cut lines. Since photo manipulation adds or removes elements, there will be cut lines. Most artists blend these out with the blurring tools, but the blur will seem out of place.
    • Check for repetitive elements like the same leaf or cloud formations since removals or subtracting elements will make it necessary for the artist to borrow some existing patterns.
    • Notice the difference in lighting behavior. Sometimes, you don’t find light where it’s supposed to be, or you find light where it’s not supposed to be.

    The untrained eye won’t immediately notice the layers, but with consistent practice and exposure, you’ll be a professional at spotting the differences in no time.

    Skill level and effort required

    Professional photo editing and manipulation take considerable skill, practice, patience, and hard work. You need to master these post-production techniques much like other endeavors or abilities. The more you do photo edits or manipulations, the better you’ll be.

    Often, graphic designers that can perform professional and flawless photo manipulation have already mastered at least basic photo editing since they have to work with different elements and make them appear as if they belong in the same picture.

    As a rule of thumb, the fewer layers in the picture, the less time you need for post-production. Photo manipulations take more time than photo edits because you need to remove or add elements to the original image.

    Similarities

    Photo editing and photo manipulation are comparable in enhancing images through post-processing. Although the former reworks color and shade while the latter creates new elements, they both modify a photo with creative intent.

    In most cases, photo editing and manipulation require the same color and exposure adjustments. The difference is that photo manipulation uses them to stylize the entire image and blend new elements. Each result creates a specific style that matches the photographer’s creative vision.

    Bottomline

    You may be wondering what are the limitations of photo manipulation compared to photo editing? The answer lies in the artist’s ability to bring images to life as realistically and as seamlessly as possible. You can rely on experienced companies like Phixer to pull off excellent real estate photo editing and manipulations without the hefty price tag.

  • How to Attractively Stage Your Home With the Click of a Mouse

    How to Attractively Stage Your Home With the Click of a Mouse

    Over 4.95 billion people have been using the Internet worldwide, turning digital platforms into convenience, innovation, and smooth communication avenues. Most real estate professionals use the World Wide Web to connect with potential buyers, network with like-minded real estate practitioners, and market properties for sale. Multiple sites and programs can help you improve your real estate competency and conversion rates.

    These days, you can accomplish a lot for your real estate listings with just a mouse click, whether virtual furniture staging or virtual staging. Moreover, you can enhance your post-production game with decluttering and editing apps requiring a few taps. Various innovations have improved the standards and processes for real estate photos.

    Before we proceed further, let’s talk about virtual staging and why you should consider using it for your real estate listings.

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    What is Virtual Staging?

    Virtual staging is a digitally-made showroom for real estate marketing and sales purposes. You can implement profiled looks and feels to a particular property and virtually stage a room to make it more presentable and aesthetically pleasing to potential buyers.

    Why Should You Virtually Stage a Room?

    There are many reasons to stage a home virtually. Most people want to focus on virtual staging furniture that allows them to dress up empty spaces according to exciting concepts and lifestyle pegs. Home staging came into practice long before the Internet was ever a thing, and developers used to spend thousands on physical showrooms.

    These days, you can easily stage listing photos with a click of a mouse or a tap of a finger on your phone. You can improve your chances of attracting the right buyers.

    How to Stage Listing Photos with a Mouse Click

    You can virtually stage any listing photo even if you’re not a real estate photographer or professional graphics creative. Now that we’ve established the importance of enhancing real estate photos, here are the many ways to attractively stage your home with just a mouse click:

    1. Digitally declutter images using photo editing software

    Sometimes, you need to remove items, furniture pieces, personal belongings, and clutter found in the photo to add better ones. Staging opens up possibilities from your existing spaces to suit the lifestyle or image you want to project to potential customers. You don’t need to be a virtual staging expert to improve your real estate listing photographs.

    Photo editing software allows you to improve your real estate pictures’ appearance by removing unwanted objects with just a few clicks, whether you’re using the classic cut-and-paste method, healing spot brush, or clone stamp tool. These techniques are pretty straightforward, especially for those with extensive photo-editing experiences.

    If you can’t do it yourself and you need the help of an expert, Phixer can help declutter images with a click of your mouse.

    2. Find home staging ideas online

    You may want to virtually stage a room, but you don’t know where to begin. Luckily, many others have done the feat before you, and the Internet is an excellent place to search for lookbooks, inspiration, and ideas. Pinterest, for example, is a platform with many modern and traditional designs perfect for indoor and outdoor spaces.

    You can search for the following information online:

    • Home staging tips
    • Virtual staging hacks
    • Real estate listing photo examples
    • Interior decoration ideas
    • Furniture styles

    Looking up real-life examples would immensely help the creative process if you want to have your staging professionally made. You can also show the samples to your potential clients, especially those staged with similar room sizes.

    3. Try furniture using Augmented Reality (AR)

    Like those dress-up apps, virtual staging furniture is a fun experience using AR technology. Famous retail brands like IKEA, Target, and Amazon have iOS and Android apps that allow you to decorate your room with pieces of furniture to scale. You can also access websites where you can upload pictures and try different types of furniture to check how it looks.

    AR boasts a 90% conversion rate, and around half of the customers prefer shopping with AR assistance. You can expect better and more accessible AR technologies as ecommerce becomes more popular and people appreciate virtual illustrations more than traditional property visits.

    Virtual furniture staging has become increasingly popular, especially among buyers looking for how specific furniture pieces look in the space. As better AR and VR technologies are available, people will soon hold real estate tours using VR headsets.

    4. Use a Virtual Staging app or website

    The best kind of staging is one made by experts. Aside from furniture apps, you can do virtual staging online through apps or websites. Companies like Phixer have a dedicated mobile app where you can capture listing photos and have them edited by experts.

    Virtual staging websites can offer the same experience, especially those that allow you to save your edits instantly. You should be careful in choosing because some of those sites can be costly, especially if you don’t have a clear vision of the style you want.

    5. Hire a Virtual Staging expert

    Another way to digitally stage your property with just a mouse click would be to hire a virtual staging expert for post-production listing photos. If Photoshop or editing programs are too overwhelming or time-consuming, you can rely on professionals. Often, these real estate editing companies provide more than just virtual staging.

    Here are some services that you can hire real estate photography and post-production experts for:

    • Photo editing
    • Video editing
    • Drone shots
    • Lawn replacement
    • Decluttering
    • Virtual twilight

    Most companies offer 8 to 48 hours turnaround times depending on the request, and they offer consultations and customer support to ensure that you get the images you need. Some websites allow you to log in and upload your photos to monitor progress and check edit status.

    Bottomline

    There are many ways to approach virtual staging online, and more companies present real estate photography and post-production services. Fortunately, a lot of the current technology improves the aesthetics and appearances of regular property images. Someday, people will make quick decisions on real estate properties with digital ocular inspections.

  • Virtual Staging and its Benefits for the Future of Real Estate Marketing

    Virtual Staging and its Benefits for the Future of Real Estate Marketing

    21st-century technology has changed how we sell and promote real estate properties. Building complicated showrooms and prematurely spending on renovations are a thing of the past, and the virtual staging process has eliminated the need for elaborate setups or props.

    Digital or virtual staging is the online equivalent of classic showroom techniques that improve real estate sales conversions or success rates. It’s a recent development, but home staging has been a part of long-standing real estate practices way before technology came into play.

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    The Real Estate Staging Tradition

    Before discussing the importance of virtual staging, it’s essential to talk about staging as a practice. Simply put, staging means readying the property or home for a possible client that involves cleaning, renovating, redecorating, rearranging furniture, dressing up the emptiness, and other aesthetic strategies to attract buyers into the house.

    Before the internet and virtual staging, it was physically impossible or impractical to bring customers to the site, so developers constructed showrooms strategically in malls or other busy areas. This practice costs a lot more than if they did staging digitally.

    You may be wondering what is virtual staging and how does it correlate to better sales possibilities? Does it also affect property pricing?

    What is Virtual Staging?

    The simple virtual staging meaning is a digital showroom designed to promote a house or property. It also refers to the technique of improving a room’s appearance in preparation for listings or social media. This method allows reimagination of space to accommodate a new lifestyle even without actual furniture or renovations.

    You may be wondering why use virtual staging for real estate marketing? There are several practical and aesthetic reasons for doing it.

    Why Use Virtual Staging?

    virtual staging a bedroom

    Virtual staging is one of the best modern real estate marketing techniques incorporating creativity and psychology into real estate photos. Be purposeful and definitive when staging real estate listing photos to ensure that you don’t waste your time and effort.

    Here are some of the benefits of digital home staging:

    1. Gives a preview of the property and home

    One of the critical virtual staging benefits includes a preview of what living in the space looks like. The sneak peek allows customers to imagine what their daily routine would look like within the vicinity. A good marketing tactic is to adjust the room aesthetics and ambiance to suit the possible clients or buyers.

    Therefore, you should stage parts of the house that the new owner would frequent. For example, if you’re attracting young professionals, they might be interested in a home office or area for a work-from-home setup. You should stage the family room, kitchen, or shared living spaces to cater to small families.

    2. Cost-effective staging method

    Virtual staging costs relatively less compared to home staging and creating showrooms. Aside from the lesser cost, you have improved potential of attracting sales and clients, and a higher success probability means a better return on investment.

    According to a 2017 National Association of Realtors (NAR) survey, the effect of virtual staging on real estate prices is an increased sale price of 1% to 15%. If you’re selling a $300,000 home, that’s a boost of $3,000 to $45,000. Virtual staging costs are only a fraction of the price increase you can charge.

    3. Save time in redecorating and decluttering spaces

    There are instances when the house’s previous owners haven’t packed or removed their personal effects before the real estate photography sessions. You should deploy creative methods to improve appearances in the real estate listing photos during such times.

    The virtual staging process will eliminate waiting for redecoration and reconstruction because you can digitally declutter and change the room’s features. It’s a time-saving method that gives more preparation time to the seller by allowing advanced listing.

    4. Fast completion

    Speed is where the importance of virtual staging shines brightest. Modern technology has improved the time needed to edit real estate photos. Many companies like Phixer offer 24-hour virtual staging services, alleviating the pain of editing images yourself.

    The actual real estate purchase procedure takes a long time, from listing to site visits and paperwork, so you welcome anything that expedites the entire flow. Virtual staging improves the appearance of your photos and allows you to post your property photos without tidying or waiting for movers to clear your items.

    5. More aesthetic options to choose from

    The virtual staging meaning changes according to use and form. Sometimes, people utilize virtual staging as a 2D tour, and other times, it’s just a way to present several options. It all boils down to virtual spaces having more options and appeal.

    Here are some ideas on how you can virtually stage your home:

    • Select one neutral theme like brown or beige, and add a non-neutral color like red, green, or blue as an accent.
    • Choose a piece of furniture to serve as the space’s highlight and build a motif around it.
    • Digitally remove all the existing decors, and leave the room bare except for white wall paint and minimal furnishings.
    • Accessorize the room. Add art pieces to bare walls and rugs to bare floors.

    The sky is the limit, as long as you ensure that all 3D-rendered furniture pieces are on the right scale and that the entire room uses the correct perspective. You can also take your virtual staging to the next level by editing your sky through virtual twilight, creating a homey ambiance.

    Bottomline

    There are a lot of virtual staging benefits, especially when you’re dealing with high-profile and expensive properties. Weigh your options carefully, and consider the value of a digitally-staged home compared to a bare real estate property without alterations.

    Customers are more likely to trust a property staged according to their preferences and lifestyle, and they may make quicker decisions when they see it in image format. The sooner they buy the virtually staged home or property, the faster you can move on to selling others.

  • How to Edit Marketable Real Estate Photos for Competitive Listing

    How to Edit Marketable Real Estate Photos for Competitive Listing

    The real estate industry heavily relies on visual appeal for sales. Most customers prefer to see clean and well-kept properties on the listing before setting an appointment to see the premises. Several agents rely on professional post-production companies like Phixer to edit real estate images suited for marketing campaigns and sales strategies.

    You can market real estate properties online through several platforms, so you should make the most of the free digital exposure by editing the images beautifully. Improve conversion rates by maximizing the attractiveness of your photos. Read more to discover how to make adjustments to real estate photos for competitiveness and marketability.

    Value of Marketability

    Primarily, people post real estate listing photos to promote sales; therefore, marketability is at the forefront of editing considerations. Marketability is an essential design aspect because it determines the property’s sales outcome, such as failure or success.

    Product marketability has two categories:

    • Design for the target audience
    • Advertisement for the target audience

    In practice, you can virtually stage the property to suit the target home buyers or edit real estate images to advertise according to buyer psychology. Real estate marketing trends continuously adapt to changing times like the most recent COVID-19 pandemic.

    Why You Should Edit Real Estate Photographs

    Images will introduce possible buyers to the property, so you must consider buyer psychology when editing them. Here are the seven deciding factors according to the home buyer psychological considerations:

    • Emotion – 44% purchase homes because they feel good in them.
    • House with a story – closely linked to emotional attachment, clients buy homes with touching histories.
    • Perceived value – clients are more likely to purchase a house with great aesthetics and condition regardless of current market value.
    • Suits ideal lifestyle – since most customers spend time at home, they are more likely to buy a property appropriate to their lifestyle.
    • Cultural superstitions – these often involve the kind of numbers attached to the property.
    • Excellent first impressions – clean and neat real estate properties attract more buyers.
    • Social proof or influence – trust and testimonials reflect credibility.

    It’s important to note that most considerations don’t revolve around market values or facts and figures but the home’s appeal, emotion, and aesthetics. For example, you can invoke emotion even before the visit by posting a virtually staged listing photo.

    There is a method and art to real estate graphics editing, and it’s simpler than most people would think. You can do it with Adobe Photoshop or any graphics editing or photo manipulation software.

    How to Edit Real Estate Pictures

    The first rule on how to make adjustments to real estate photos is maintaining its natural state unless you’re virtually staging your property. It’s essential to be as realistic as possible, especially when posting the images on listing sites and social media pages.

    Here are straightforward real estate photo editing techniques:

    1. Adjust Exposure

    The lighting can make or break the image ambiance when you edit property photos. Overexposure, too much light, or underexposure, too little light, could ruin the overall effect of the picture. There are automatic adjustment settings that could help improve exposure.

    Darkening overexposed area:

    • You can use the Burn tool to darken an overexposed area.
    • Set the tool as Highlights on the top menu and paint over the area you want to shade.
    • Exposure default is often 50%, but you should start at 10%.

    2. Adjust Levels

    Levels setting allows you to manipulate the image’s color balance and tonal range by modifying image highlights, midtones, and shadows intensity levels. The histogram is a graphic guide in changing the fundamental tones of the image, and the Levels setting improves how to edit real estate pictures.

    Adjusting tonal settings:

    • Select Levels from the panel menu or choose the Levels icon located in the Adjustments panel.
    • Pick Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Affirm your selection in the New Layer dialog box pop up.

    The external input Levels indicators mark the black end and white end to the settings of the output indicators. The Output sliders mark 0, where the pixels are black, and 255 white by default. Moving the black input slider maps the pixel value to level 0, and adjusting the white point slider maps the pixel value to level 255. The remaining levels spread between levels 0 and 255, increasing the image’s tonal range and improving the overall picture contrast. The middle Input slider adjusts the image’s gamma. It moves the mid-tone (level 128) and modifies the intensity values of the mid-range of gray tones without drastically changing the shadows and highlights.

    You can save Levels settings as a preset then apply them to other images.

    3. Remove Clutter

    Buyers want to see the house or property in its best state, so removing unnecessary objects and distractions is one way to edit property photos. You can hire a company or freelancer to remove excess objects or do it yourself.

    Here are some ways to edit out unwanted items on your real estate images:

    • Spot Healing Brush tool automatically samples pixels from a specific area to edit on top of the unwanted item and blend with the surroundings.
    • Healing Brush tool works like Spot Healing Brush, but it allows you to select the pixels to utilize as a spot.
    • Clone Stamp tool gives more coverage because it copies content from one area to a selected location without blending.
    • Content-Aware workspace allows you to hide huge areas of an image, offering a live previous enabling control over the many options.

    Final Thoughts

    There’s no shame in doing post-production magic to get more sales. The highly-competitive real estate industry is dependent on real estate graphics editing to promote less marketable properties. However, it would help if you made an effort to remain accurate in your representation of real estate images because too much exaggeration or edits could tarnish your credibility.

  • Top 5 Virtual Staging Companies for Real Estate Sales in 2022

    Top 5 Virtual Staging Companies for Real Estate Sales in 2022

    Clients want to patronize products or services unique from the rest, and they are often adamant about labels and personalization. In 2022, more businesses are leaning toward creativity and personal touch to increase sales likelihood and conversion on both digital and in-person transactions.

    Personalization in the real estate industry translates to virtually staged spaces to accommodate the potential client’s imagination. Virtual home staging companies have spent years perfecting perspectives, proportions, color theories, and other essential elements to make digitally staged images look realistic.

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    What is Virtual Staging?

    Virtual staging is the digital equivalent of a real estate showroom or home staging. Often, virtually-staged rooms are blank canvases to invite home buyers to design the space as they want. Sometimes, you can also stage the areas according to your target buyer profiles, such as small families or bachelors.

    Customers may not want to buy your property if your image looks too staged or unrealistic. It would help if you used the correct scaling and image processing when virtually staging your home to look natural. Hiring the best virtual staging companies 2022 will ensure a higher probability of creating high-quality listing images and landing real estate sales.

    Here are some of the companies that offer digital home staging services in 2022:

    1. RoOomy

    RoOomy offers virtual staging and a design studio app for interior design enthusiasts and real estate professionals. The company prices each virtual staging photo at $49 to $109 with discounts for bulk purchases and a turnaround time of 2 to 3 business days. Unlike some companies on the list, RoOomy doesn’t offer a satisfaction guarantee and charges extra for revisions.

    However, the company provides technical and customer support with a dedicated account management team to ensure smooth transactions.

    The company has a 3-step order process:

    1. Submit images for staging and select the preferred design from their style guide. You can choose from contemporary, farmhouse, mid-century modern, modern, rustic, traditional, transitional, Scandinavian and minimalistic designs.
    2. Review and approve submitted proofs. The virtual staging team will provide several proofs for approval and final rendering.
    3. Check and upload your high-resolution photos.

    The Design Studio App lets you create 3D designs on your Apple devices and test furniture while shopping for those items from retailers such as Wayfair, Pottery Barn, and Amazon. You can also save and share your designs via social media sites or email.

    2. PadStyler

    PadStyler offers several real estate services, such as virtual staging (including virtual home staging, furniture replacement, kitchen vision, remodeling, and landscaping) and architectural rendering (including video walkthroughs and 3D floor plans). The company charges $79 per virtually staged photo with bundles, bulk discounts, and weekend same-day delivery for $19 an image.

    The company has good design quality for its price. Still, several home sellers and real estate agents have given good virtual staging solutions reviews on its outputs and designs. PadStyler offers a money-back and satisfaction guaranteed with unlimited edits, which is advantageous for clients with no clear virtual staging goal.

    PadStyler also delivers services such as architectural rendering, 3D floor plans, and video walkthroughs, valuable for commercial real estate agents. Its virtual staging service is only available on weekdays, so you might have to contact their 24/7 customer support for inquiries about your photos.

    3. Phixer

    Phixer is currently one of the largest real estate photography editing companies globally, processing over 50,000 photos a day and employing over 800 people, including photo editors, 3D artists, AI engineers, and full-stack developers. The company has been in operation for 13 years.

    Phixer offers a wide range of services such as photo and video editing, lawn replacement, decluttering, virtual twilight, and editing mobile application. The company’s unique experience allows Phixer to deliver exceptional results within a standard 24-hour timeframe and 12 to 18 hours with a rush rate.

    Phixer is one of the best virtual staging companies with a real estate editing mobile application. The company offers limited-time signup promotions of 30 free edits or three projects within a trial account of at most ten photos each and provides ten free credits for Phixer mobile app download.

    4. Tantify

    Tantify offers high-quality home staging designs. Hasten, a New York-based 3D architectural company owns Tantify, so each design is crafted with real estate value in mind. The company can pull off the latest trends and styles to ensure top marketability value.

    Tantify is one of the top companies, according to virtual staging reviews, offering digital staging services with a price range of $69 to $189 per individual photo with a turnaround time of 8 to 24 hours depending on your order. Clients expecting large output volumes can also avail of monthly subscriptions that start at $2,520 for 35 photos up to $4,169 for 65 photos.

    Each pricing has its own features and inclusions. The company offers the highest virtual staging prices on the list, but it has 24/7 customer support and a special 8-hour turnaround time that may be worth the price if you’re in a hurry.

    5. Virtual Staging Solutions

    The final company on the list is Virtual Staging Solutions, which offers high-quality virtually staged room remodels, construction, and designs. Virtual staging costs $75 for basic and $99 for pro, and bulk discounts start at $300. The company provides two revision rounds and a money-back guarantee minimizing risk.

    Most virtual staging solutions reviews are positive, but Virtual Staging Solution’s 1 to 2 days turnaround time may not be appealing to those operating within a tight deadline. The company’s customer support only takes calls from Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM EST. You can only create orders through the token system, so there’s a chance that you might not use all of them.

    Bottomline

    Potential clients want to see how their houses look according to the latest interior design trends. If you’re selling a home or property that looks outdated or unappealing, you can digitally improve its appearance by staging the area. Virtual staging is a great marketing tool for increased real estate sales in 2022, and most companies offer this service at competitive rates.

  • How to Edit an Amazing Virtual Twilight for Real Estate Photo Editing

    How to Edit an Amazing Virtual Twilight for Real Estate Photo Editing

    Real estate listings are highly competitive. The best real estate photos should have a combination of external and internal factors. Remember that the ambiance and overall property appeal can significantly affect a homebuyer’s decision.

    If you’re hiring real estate photo editing services or editing photos on your own, it’s essential to apply the rules of virtual twilight editing in your photos. This technique will make the images more appealing to the naked eye as exterior photos look best during sunset.

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    Here are some of the tips you can follow:

    1. Decide on an Overall Look

    Planning is the first step to creating a beautiful virtual twilight real estate photo, especially since there are specific conditions for optimal image processing. If you shot around 20 photos of the property’s exteriors, pick approximately 10 or 12, make lens correction adjustments and cull the images you want to edit.

    2. Separate the Image as Layers

    Once you have imported images on Photoshop, pick an ambient image as your bottom layer. If you haven’t shot an ambient image, you can use a flash image that doesn’t cast shadows or lights on the central part of the house.

    Here are the steps in separating the layers of the image:

    • Turn off visibility on all layers except your base layer.
    • Turn on your second layer, and then add a black mask.
    • Don’t forget to change your blend mode into “lighten” to reveal lighter pixels from the top layer.

    3. Edit the Image

    You can treat the image after organizing the layers. Remember that you’re only enhancing the scene with a crisp light in this step, so don’t go overboard.

    Take your brush and then make the following changes:

    • Change your color to white;
    • Set your flow to 8%;
    • Set your hardness between 0-20%;
    • Brush around the areas where light is painted with flash.

    4. Flatten the Image

    Next, you need to flatten the image to have a cleaner and clearer selection for the sky replacement. To do this, highlight all the layers you’re working on, right-click and then select flatten image. You should already see some improvements in your photo.

    5. Add Your New Sky

    You need to select a high-quality and realistic-looking sky on the internet for this part. Don’t go overboard when choosing your new atmosphere. Remember, the focus on the photo should still be the exterior of the property, not the virtual twilight sky.

    Once you’ve selected your new sky, copy your sky layer into your layer pallet. Make sure that the padlock on your base layer is unchecked, and then drag your sky layer below it.

    6. Select and Mask Your Sky

    Select the “quick selection” tool and select your sky. Once done, choose the “select and mask” button on the toolbar and click the “refine edge” tool. After, make the following setting to the photo you’re editing:

    • Contrast: 25%
    • Feather: 2.1px
    • Output to: Layer mask
    • Radius: 3px
    • Shift Edge: -5%
    • Smart Radius unchecked
    • Smooth: 2

    With the “refine edge” tool, work on improving the mask edge. You can do this by placing the brush on the body of the image and then brush toward the sky. This action will enable you to select everything on the picture except the sky.

    Click on “ok” to apply the mask to a new layer of mask. The selection will be an inverted mask, but you can quickly reverse the section by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + i. Your photo should look pretty good at this point, but you’ll need to clean it.

    Move your sky layer strategically on your photo to see the best part of the sky. You can do this by clicking on the sky layer and using the move tool.

    Once you’re satisfied with how the sky appears in the photo, flatten the image again. Save the image and import it again to Lightroom.

    7. Make Final Adjustments

    Adjust the contrast, exposure, saturation, and verticals once you import the photo in a post-processing program like Lightroom. The corrections you’ll make to your photo will usually depend on the angle you shot the image. Ensure that the sky doesn’t look too distinct or awkward by blurring or blending in the tones.

    Practice Makes Perfect

    Contrary to popular belief, virtual twilight editing is easy. As long as you’re willing to exert effort to learn how to use specific editing tools and spend time practicing, it won’t be long before you can master the day to dusk photo editing and create the most stunning virtual twilight in your photos.