Staging homes is an important part of the real estate industry, and while agents traditionally stage homes physically before posting a listing, it’s an expensive and time-consuming process. Call a startup Virtual Staging AI enables Realtors to virtually stage a home with the help of genetic artificial intelligence.
Part of the Harvard Innovation Labs, Virtual Staging AI currently has 4,500 monthly paid subscribers and seeks to transform the real estate and staging industry. The startup has reached $1 million in ARR in the past 10 months and generates over half a million renders per month.
The startup’s co-founder and CEO Michael Bonacina told TechCrunch that while looking for an apartment in Boston to attend Harvard, he came across a listing that allowed viewers to visualize what the space would look like furnished. Bonacina, who had an interest in computer vision, decided he wanted to improve that experience and make it easier for Realtors to feature it in their listings.
After taking a class on startup research and development, Bonacina and fellow Harvard student Mikhail Andreev decided to create a virtual startup to help real estate professionals and home sellers save time and money.
Image Credits: Virtual Staging AI
The startup’s tool allows Realtors to add furniture to images of empty rooms in seconds. Instead of having to share images of empty rooms in a listing, the tool gives Realtors realistic images of furnished rooms. Realtors can choose to convert an empty room into a bedroom, living room, office, playroom, etc.
Brokers can also use the tool to remove furniture from images and replace it with different furniture. For example, if an image includes mismatched furniture, the launcher can remove it and replace it with modern furniture.
If you don’t like how an image looks, you can revise it as many times as you like.
Bonacina recognizes that while there are many AI tools on the market for creating images, they cannot be applied to real or virtual scenery because you can only change a limited number of things in an image while staying true to the real property.
“If you put an empty room in DALL-E, it can turn the window into a mural, or it can add an extra door or something,” Bonacina said. “This obviously misrepresents ownership. Something very specific to real estate needs is required.”
The Virtual Staging AI model is able to analyze the 3D structure of a room and understand where the floor, ceiling, mirrors and doors are. The AI model then selects the best fitting furniture based on the Realtor’s preferences.
Image Credits: Virtual Staging AI
While Realtors could hire someone to digitally stage a room using tools like Photoshop, Virtual Staging AI promises a cheaper and faster way to do it. The startup’s cheapest plan costs $12 per month and includes six photos, while the most expensive plan costs $69 per month and comes with 250 photos.
Bonacina also says it was important for the startup to create something that’s easy to use compared to other AI generation tools. According to National Association of Realtorsthe median age of all Realtors in the association in the United States is 60, which is part of the reason why the company wanted to create an easy and accessible tool for all Realtors.
Virtual Staging AI has yet to raise outside funding, but Bonacina and Andreev have together raised $250,000 in personal funds and from friends and family to get the startup off the ground.
Real estate has continued to evolve over the years, from offering only in-person viewings to facilitating virtual tours. It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence, which has transformed industries like healthcare and robotics, is also bringing advances to the world of real estate.
