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Updated over 11 years ago,
Brainstorming a business idea
I am a real estate investor and have two duplexes that I'm about to buy and flip. I was talking to my sister-in-law (SIL) who is an interior designer the other day. She and I came up with the idea of using her CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software to 'virtually stage' the duplexes right after I close on them and start selling them using a possible landing page attached to a MLS listing to show the finished product as I am rehabbing. We are just brainstorming and would love to hear ideas that might refine it?
My realtor is telling me that people just have no imagination and can't picture a house fully fixed up. So when I have flipped houses in the past, I have had to wait until it was basically done before marketing it. My SIL's software can make the place look VERY close to a photograph and could show people what the place would look like fixed up. This could potentially solve a bunch of problems for me:
1. It would put the house on the market much more quickly, and possibly save me some mortgage payments if it sells quicker - not to mention get my cash out quicker for the next deal.
2. The buyers may be able to work with her to make some changes to our fix-up (once I had a purchase agreement in place) so they could customize it to their taste. I think we would just give them some basic choices, rather than get crazy and then walk away from the deal.
3. My realtor would have a much better MLS ad to display the listing without having to put actual furniture in the place to stage it, and much sooner.
It looks like people are doing 'virtual staging' already, but we would do it before and while we remodel the place. Everyone else is doing it when the place is ready to go on the market. Sort of the benefits of having some say in new construction without (possibly) the higher costs or longer wait times. I can turn these houses in just a month or two.
I was wondering what people thought and if it make sense to have a landing page to link to from the MLS listing? Thanks. It seems like if this worked for me, it might be something to sell to other investors and/or realtors?