A major component of the real estate business is house staging. Although agents have historically physically staged homes before listing them, this is a costly and time-consuming procedure. Realtors can now virtually stage a home with the aid of generative AI, according to a business called Virtual Staging AI.
With 4,500 monthly paying customers, Virtual Staging AI, a division of Harvard Innovation Laboratories, aims to revolutionize the property management and staging sectors. Over the previous ten months, the firm obtained one million dollars in ARR and is currently producing more than half a million renderings monthly.
What Is Virtual Staging?
Michael Bonacina, the chief executive officer and co-founder of the startup, told TechCrunch that while looking for a residence in Boston so he could go to Harvard, he came upon an advertisement that let users see how the space would appear when furnished. With a background in computer vision, Bonacina decided to improve their expertise by making it simpler for Realtors to include it in their marketing.
Following a course on venture development and research, Bonacina and another Harvard graduate, Mikhail Andreev, decided to launch a virtual staging company to save time and money for real estate agents and property sellers.
Realtors can quickly add furniture to photos of empty spaces with the startup’s application. Realtors can use the technology to view actual views of furnished rooms instead of sharing photos of unfurnished spaces in listings. Realtors can designate a space that is now unoccupied as a sleeping space, living space, workplace, playroom, etc.
Realtors can employ the tool to swap out furniture in photos and remove it from the frame. The startup’s product, for example, can replace any mismatched furniture in an image with modern furniture.
You can make as many revisions as you like to an image if you don’t like how it turns out.
Bonacina notes that although there are a lot of AI technologies available for creating photos, they are not suitable for use in real estate. The number of things you can alter in an image without losing the integrity of the original property is limited.
According to Bonacina, if you place an empty room in DALL-E, it might add a door or anything, or it might transform the window into a wall painting. It is an inaccurate portrayal of the property. Something that is highly tailored to the requirements of the property is needed.
Virtual Manufacturing artificial intelligence (AI) model can identify the locations of the ground, roofing, mirrors, and doorways by analyzing the three-dimensional structure of a space. Then, considering the Realtor’s preferences, the artificial intelligence model selects the furniture that fits the best.
Realtors may employ someone to stage a space digitally with Photoshop or another program, but this company offers a quicker and less expensive solution. The startup’s most costly subscription, which costs 69 dollars per month, includes 250 photos and the cheapest plan is priced at 12 dollars per month and features six photos.
In addition, Bonacina notes that the startup’s creation of a reflexive interface, in contrast with other artificial intelligence solutions, was crucial. The company intended to establish a straightforward and readily available solution for all Realtors because, based on the National Association of Real Estate Professionals, the average age of every licensed Realtor in the industry is sixty years in the United States.
Although Bonacina and Andreev used their own money as well as donations from relatives and close friends to launch Virtual Staging AI, the company has yet to receive any outside funding.
Over the years, the real estate industry has changed, moving from solely providing in-person showings to now allowing virtual tours. Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence, which has revolutionized sectors like robotics and healthcare, is now driving innovations in the real estate industry.
