Virtual Staging A Flip? Box Brownie Review

[Ryan Dossey]

We listed a wholetale (flip with no real work done to it) last month and wanted to spruce up our listing a bit. I stumbled on a company called Box Brownie that does image retouching, virtual staging, and even item removal for a fairly reasonable price. 

They charged $4 to get rid of the Indiana gray sky and replace it with the sunset. There was also a car in the driveway that they removed... 

Before: 

After:

Notes: 

I love the sky change and definitely think that it made the listing cover photo "pop". I wasn't as thrilled with the grass coloring as no one's grass is that green in Indiana in February. Otherwise, they did a great job and I'm sure the change increased our click-through rate from folks browsing listings. 

Total cost of ^ this? 

$8.00

According to a 2015 article in Forbes, "The National Association of Realtors states that staged homes sell 87% faster and for an average premium of 17% more.".

They even stated that 95% of staged homes sell within 11 days. That's a pretty bold claim...

Mine sold in 10 days. 

One of the dangers with virtual staging is that it can be used to deceive potential buyers into believing that rooms are substantially larger than they really are. As investors, it is our responsibility to operate ethically and ensure that we aren't setting up any realtors for disappointing walkthroughs with their clients. 

Please note that in some markets realtors are REQUIRED to disclose if virtual staging has been used.

Box Brownie did a fantastic job in using appropriately sized furniture for the size of the spaces we had them do per our instructions.

Master Bedroom Before: 

After: 

Finished Basement Before: 

After: 

Finished Living Room (Sorry I don't have a before handy): 

Overall I was EXTREMELY pleased with Box Brownie's staging of our flip and we will definitely use them again. To do all of the edits/staging we wanted on this flip cost us right at $300. To have the home staged it would have been 2k+. 

Have you ever used virtual staging or tried it?

[Ryan Dossey]

@Ryan Daigle We didn't know about it until we tried it on this one. Very happy with the results and definitely using it going forward.