House staging is an important part of the real estate industry, and real estate agents have traditionally physically staged homes before listing them, which is an expensive and time-consuming process. A startup called Virtual Staging AI is enabling real estate agents to virtually stage homes using generative AI.
Virtual Staging AI, part of Harvard Innovation Labs, currently has 4,500 monthly paid subscribers and aims to transform the real estate and staging industry. The startup has reached $1 million in ARR over the past 10 months and is generating over 500,000 renders each month.
Michael Bonacina, the company's co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch that when he was looking for an apartment in Boston to attend Harvard University, his viewers asked him what kind of furniture the space had. He said he came across a list that gave him an idea of what he was equipped with. Interested in his computer vision, Bonacina wanted to enhance that experience and make it easier for real estate agents to include it in their listings.
After taking a class on startup research and development, Bonacina and Harvard student Mikhail Andreev decided to build a virtual staging startup to help real estate professionals and home sellers save time and money. I decided.
Image credits: Virtual staging AI
The startup's tool allows real estate agents to add furniture to images of vacant rooms within seconds. This tool allows real estate agents to get realistic images of furnished rooms without having to share images of vacant rooms in their listings. Real estate agents can choose to turn empty rooms into bedrooms, living rooms, offices, playrooms, and more.
Real estate agents can also use this tool to remove furniture from images and replace it with different furniture. For example, if an image contains furniture that doesn't match, the startup's tools can remove it and replace it with modern furniture.
If you don't like the way your image turns out, you can edit it as many times as you like.
Bonacina said there are many AI tools on the market for generating images, but they can only change a limited number of elements within an image while staying true to the real estate, making them difficult to use for real estate or virtual staging. admits that it is not applicable.
“If we put an empty room in DALL-E, we might turn the windows into murals, add doors or something,” Bonacina said. “That's clearly misrepresenting real estate. You need something very specific to your real estate needs.”
Virtual Staging AI's models can analyze the 3D structure of a room and understand where floors, roofs, mirrors, and doors are placed. The AI model then selects the best furniture based on the real estate agent's preferences.
Image credits: Virtual staging AI
Real estate agents can also hire someone to digitally stage rooms using tools like Photoshop, but Virtual Staging AI promises a cheaper and faster method. The startup's cheapest plan costs $12 per month and includes six photos, while its most expensive plan costs $69 per month and includes 250 photos.
Bonasina also said it was important for the startup to build something that was easy to use compared to other generative AI tools. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median age of all real estate agents in the association in the United States is 60 years old, which is why the company wanted to create an easy and accessible tool for all real estate agents. That's one of the reasons.
Virtual Staging AI hasn't raised any outside funding yet, but Bonacina and Andreev pooled $250,000 from personal funds and friends and family to get the startup off the ground.
Real estate has continued to evolve over the years, moving from offering only in-person viewings to facilitating virtual tours. It's no surprise that artificial intelligence, which has revolutionized industries like healthcare and robotics, is also making advances in the world of real estate.