Where would the sofa go? Is there room for a table? A good listing helps renters picture life in a home and decide whether it is worth a visit.
For physical staging, a team chooses sofas, tables and other pieces, arranges delivery and sets up the room before photos are taken. See an example of physical staging.
With AI staging, staff start with a photo of the room and make a version with those items added. The room itself stays as it was. Before using the image, compare it with the original: are the doors, windows and room size still right? Runway’s staging guide explains the process and the checks.
At housing firm Heimstaden, the reported cost of making one virtually staged property image in the Netherlands fell from about €50 to under €0.10. The firm reports that gain in OpenAI’s customer case.
That figure covers the image cost. The case gives no measured time gain for the whole listing job, from preparing the image to getting the listing ready for renters.
To try a tool, start with one room that is hard to furnish. Runway’s vendor guide suggests testing tools on the same room and tracking time, cost, accuracy and how many images are usable. Count each attempt, including the checks and fixes needed to get an image you would use. This is a vendor’s how-to, not an outside test of the tools.
Then ask what changed beyond the image.
In a Stanford trial on benefits work, staff tended to favour the AI tool, but the study found no measurable speed gain on the tasks tested. In a separate UK government pilot, some staff said checking AI output used up the time they had saved.
Both trials took place outside real estate. They offer a reason to ask staff how the work felt and check what the task took from start to finish.
Try it with a sample rental ad
Use the same idea to see if AI helps your team write a rental ad.
Make two sets of similar, made-up property notes, with the same level of detail. Write from one set as you normally would and use AI to help with the other. Keep client, deal and other private data out of the test.
Time both from reading the notes to copy that passes the same checks. Include the time each person spends on drafts, checks and edits. Note tool costs, missed facts and any extra work passed to a colleague.
Judge both versions by what renters need: correct facts, clear terms and a fair view of the home. Which version met that standard, and what did it take to get there?
Ask staff where AI helped and what got in the way. Agree who owns the final check. Use this first test to choose what to try next, then repeat with fresh notes before changing the team’s routine.
How are you and your team using AI? We’d love to hear. Book a call with us.