Is Virtual Staging Legal? Where Does the Line Stand?

How Does Illegal and Unethical Virtual Staging Look Like?

Since virtual staging deals with photographs, theoretically, there are no limits to what we can do. In reality, there are some alterations that it’s best not to leave to virtual staging.

Remodeling:

You can remove an old fireplace and change the color of the walls and cabinets to show the property’s potential. However, as you can see, the outcome is far away from the actuality of the property. Putting such an image on your listing ad can only be interpreted as a misrepresentation.

Repairing:

There may be a stain on the wall or a hole in the carpet. It is possible to cover these by adding virtual furnishing and decorations. If you do so without enlisting the before shots, you have moved to unethical and illegal staging.

As a general rule, if you are creating a huge gap between what the property is and how it looks in the pictures, you are subjecting yourself to criticism and legal action. But no worries! It is possible to take advantage of virtual staging without concerns regarding its legality. Let’s see how.

How to Keep Virtual Staging Legal?

Here are some guidelines to consider when using virtual staging services. These will assist you in taking advantage of the service while avoiding liability.

Stage but Don’t hide {a before and after image of virtual staging and empty room}

Virtual staging entails adding furniture, decorations, and accessories to the images of an empty property. Of course, the property might not necessarily be vacant. You can virtually stage pictures of a listing after they’ve gone through “whole item removal.” Nevertheless, real estate virtual staging requires images of an empty room.

So, your starting point is an empty space. Ask yourself this:  is virtual staging adding something or hiding something? Are you virtually covering a hole in the wall by innocently putting a couch in front of it? Are you blocking a stain on the carpet by placing a table on it?

Some of these may be inevitable. Your intention is not to hide, but it happens anyway. No worries, you can evade any accusations by putting before and after images for your online listing. This way, the homebuyers see the property as is and could be in one place.

Unveil virtual staging {a virtually staged image with a logo or sign saying: “Virtually Staged”}

How to make sure your virtual staging stays legal? Easy, mention it! By concealing that listing images are virtually staged, you turn the illusion into a deception. Benjamin Franklin wisely said: “the truth will set you free.” So, avoid any misrepresentation lawsuit by disclosing on your listing images that they’re virtually staged.

When you label your images as such, the future buyers’ expectations are set straight, and it wouldn’t feel like a scam when they visit the property.

Take advantage of printed listing images {a printed version of the staged room, but it should be put in front of the shot of the empty room}

Apart from keeping marketing efforts legal, we should consider the future buyers’ emotions. They are scrolling online; our tastefully albeit virtually staged listing images catch their eye. They arrange a visit, and when they arrive at the property, that emptiness hits them in the face.

You are not doing anything illegal; you have disclosed in your ad that the images are virtually staged, and they know it. But being aware of a fact does not necessarily overcome the sensation. That is one shortcoming of virtual staging compared to real or traditional staging. But no worries, printed pictures are an easy solution to overcome this void.

Putting a printed picture of each room’s virtually staged version is the perfect strategy; buyers can go around the room without the bother of furniture and decoration, and yet they can enlist the help of the printed image to envision living there with their possessions.

Define the objective: Staging or make-over {a before and after of a virtual staging project for a fixer-upper house}

Your listing can be a fixer-upper, and the owner might not want to spend a dime on renovation or even repair. You’ll need a miracle to market such a property, and virtual renovation and staging can significantly assist. You want to show the property’s potential, but it’s impossible to do so through skinned paint, worn-out carpet, outdated cabinets, and any eye-sour feature of the house. Still, some people look for exactly such properties. You can help them see the estate after renovations by virtual make-over and staging of the property.

Take prior precautions

You can steer clear of future legal actions:

• Consult a lawyer: check the wording of your listing ads with a lawyer in advance. Look for anything that makes room for a misrepresentation claim. Acquire a checklist of legal boundaries for future listings.
• Get Errors & Omissions insurance: it takes only one mislabeled picture to open the door for legal action. By having proper E&O insurance, you can use marketing options concern-free.

Conclusion

Now that we have analyzed the legal aspects of virtual staging, we can agree with Mr. Wilde; with virtual staging, there is no pure and simple truth since the concept is based on illusion. That is why we tried to answer “is virtual staging legal?” with “what keeps virtual staging legal?”

Simply put, It’s not a lie if everyone knows it, and it’s not a lie if you don’t intend to deceive. It may seem like an oversimplification, but we can use this rule to assess the legality of our virtual staging. In a nutshell, disclosing your virtual staging efforts in advance and in detail is where the line stands for legal virtual staging.

In a nutshell, virtual staging is legal if your audience knows about it!