2021 Year-End Review: How Did Real Estate Industry React To Prop Tech

2021, what a year! If we could summarize the year in a word, we would choose ‘resilience’. It's the only thing that has brought us all this far in a year which saw devastating losses but equal parts triumph of the human spirit. We salute you for your resilience and thank you for giving us an opportunity to serve you. It has been an incredible journey for Styldod; starting off the year by testing waters in virtual staging to ending it with a full suite of services to meet the needs of agents and photographers across geographies. Saying that we have grown by leaps and bounds in the last year would be an understatement. We had the privilege to expand on the number of services, our team, and happy customers, all thanks to the love and support from you and the real estate community. So, without further ado, here’s our year-end review that captures your choices which in turn reflect real estate trends and gives a clear picture of how the industry reacted to prop-tech and other technology in real estate.

2021 Year in Review

This infographic tries to capture the how and what of prop-tech adoption by the real estate industry in 2021 as well as the design and visual styles preferred by agents and photographers. Virtual Staging is the out and out winner among services provided by Styldod and only goes on to show how the importance of visually appealing listings images is causing a shift of staging preferences in the industry. You can read more about what is virtual staging and the service at Styldod in this blog.

Top 3 Trending Styldod Services

In 2021, we expanded our wings and went beyond being just another virtual staging company. Our current lineup of services adds up to 13 and focuses on the overall beautification of the listing. Here are our top 3 services customers requested for in 2021:

1. Virtual Staging

Virtual staging is a powerful real estate marketing tool in which vacant rooms are staged virtually with the help of computer vision technology and transformed into beautiful, stylish, virtually staged spaces. We take pride in the fact that we are the most photo-realistic & affordable virtual home staging service in the market today. And, guess what? We do it in just 24-48 hours with unlimited iterations till you are happy.

2. Basic Image Editing

A service where our expert photo artists enhance the brightness, perspective, and color balance of your real estate photos. 25% of our orders this year chose this service to visually transform their listings into best sellers. Stay tuned for more developments around this service in the coming months.

3. Clutter Removal

Didn’t get time to clean up your listing before the photoshoot? Or noticed personal affects after the shoot? Don’t worry. Our clutter removal service can remove all distracting items from your photos. 13.21% of customers opted for this service.

Other Popular Service: Image Modification

Want to switch up the flooring of your house? Or change the wall color? Image modification can help you replace the home’s features in no time. 3.89% of clients went for this add-on service with virtual staging.

Most Popular Interior Design Styles

Home interior design styles have evolved over the years and, when done right, can enhance the property's beauty. Here are the top 3 interior design styles customers chose this year for their virtual staging:

1. Modern

20.5% of our clients this year loved throwing it back to the ’50s with this post-war American style. The modern style uses rich woods and classic colors of chartreuse and mustard yellow to highlight the flow and functionality of the home.

2. Contemporary

Timeless and classic, the contemporary style rides on neutral colors, sleekness, and simplicity. 19% of our clients went for this design style that uses metal, glass, and textured fabrics to beautify their listings during virtual staging.

3. Glam

Popular in California since the 1930s, the glam style is everything over the top and grand and resembles Hollywood’s golden era. 9.81% of our customers chose this design style for virtual staging for the bright colors, mirrored furniture, and sophisticated nature.

Check this section out for more interior design styles we offer.

Most Staged Rooms

As virtual staging involves digitally furnishing the interiors of a listing to help prospective buyers visualize themselves living there, our clients went for the following, most prominent rooms in the house to stage.

1. Bedroom
   Bedrooms 1, 2 were the most staged rooms by agents looking to spruce up the listing / help buyers see the house as their future home.
2. Living Room
   Evidently, the second most lived in and visible room was also staged most often.
3. Kitchen
   A room that's at the heart of the house, the kitchen came up 3rd in the rooms most staged by our clients. Updates to features and look and feel were made to stay with the trends of the day.
   

Leading Geographies that Opted for Virtual Staging, Image Enhancement and Other Styldod Services

This year we were fortunate enough to get love from four different continents across the globe. The USA came up as the #1 country among the geographies we catered to, followed by Canada and then Australia.

Top States in USA that Opted for Styldod Services

We have listed down the top states in the order of demand received for virtual staging, image enhancement, virtual tours, floor plans and other Styldod services.

1. California: The Golden State led the charge with more than 16% orders coming in from this leading home market.
2. Texas: The Lone Star State came up a close second with more than 9% orders flowing in from this large state.
3. New York: Home to the mecca of real estate, this state came up third at 8.6% of orders.
4. Florida: Sunshine, beaches and glorious real estate! No wonder this state took up the fourth position with 8.4% orders.
5. Illinois: With 7.23% of orders this state took up the 5th place last year.

New Jersey, Washington, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are other states that led in opting for our services.

Top States in Canada that Opted for Styldod Services

1. Ontario: With more than 34% orders this large state led orders from Canada.
2. Alberta: With more than 25% orders Alberta staked its claim on the second place.
3. British Colombia: Coming in close behind Alberta, this prominent state came up third.
4. Quebec
5. Manitoba
   

Top States in Australia that Opted for Styldod Services

1. New South Wales
2. Queensland
3. Australian Capital territory
   

With the real estate industry becoming more dependent on technology, we’re glad to have pivoted and combined our design knowledge with technology to introduce a lineup of services, including virtual staging, virtual tours, 3D rendering, property websites, and more. In addition to this, we have more exciting announcements coming up in 2022, which will serve our greater purpose of adding value to real estate professionals’ lives. So stay tuned!

This year we also started an interview series to provide a knowledge hub for the real estate agent and photographer communities, especially those in the beginning stages of their careers. Check them out now on our blog and YouTube channel.
Styldod is a design-tech company that aims to simplify real estate marketing and help agents present homes in their most favorable light online by reimagining and automating the listing photography process. Having begun as a virtual staging company, today, Styldod has affordable and best-in-class products and services for every facet of real estate marketing and photography. Styldod’s suite of services include virtual staging, image enhancements, floor plans, virtual renovation, 3D renders, 360 degree virtual tours, and Matterport virtual staging, to name a few. We're trusted by over 10,000 realtors from all over the US and from agencies like ReMax, Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams. Know more about us at https://www.styldod.com.