Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Real Estate Agent Built a 15K Side Hustle in Virtual Staging
Transcript
- Lucas: When you think of side hustles in real estate, you usually think of wholesaling or renting out properties on Airbnb. But there's a much lower-risk, higher-margin niche that one agent turned into a 15-thousand dollar a month business: virtual staging consulting. Luna: Virtual staging — that's where you digitally add furniture and decor to photos of empty rooms, right? Lucas: Exactly. And the agent we spoke to, let's call her Sarah, had been a traditional real estate agent for about eight years. She was good at physically staging homes for listings, but she noticed a bottleneck: she could only stage so many houses a week. The physical labor, the logistics of moving furniture, it limited her income. Lucas: Then she discovered virtual staging. She realized she could use software to place furniture into empty room photos, and suddenly she wasn't bound by geography or time. She could serve agents in other states, handle multiple listings in a day, and charge per room. Luna: And we aim to keep episodes like this ad-free because we think that aligns with the value we're trying to deliver. If that matters to you, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Anyway, back to Sarah's story. Lucas: Right, so she started with a free trial of an AI staging tool called BoxBrownie, then upgraded to a paid plan. Her first client was a fellow agent she met on LinkedIn. She offered to virtually stage one room for free as a demo. That client was blown away by the quality and hired her for the whole listing. Luna: So she didn't need to invest in physical furniture or storage? That's a huge startup cost eliminated. Lucas: Exactly. Her only costs were the software subscription, roughly 50 dollars a month, and her time. She charged 100 dollars per room, so staging a three-bedroom house would net her 300 bucks. And she could do that in about an hour once she got the hang of the tool. Luna: What about the photography? Does the agent need to send high-res photos of empty rooms? Lucas: Good question. Most agents already have photos taken by professional photographers. Sarah just asks for the raw images. She then masks the empty room, adds furniture that matches the style of the house, and delivers the final images in two business days. She also offers a rush service for an extra fee. Luna: How did she get her first few clients beyond that initial LinkedIn contact? Lucas: She did two things. First, she joined local real estate investor groups on Facebook and offered to stage their listings at a discount. Second, she created a simple portfolio website showcasing before and after shots and shared it in real estate forums. Within three months, she had a steady stream of referrals. Luna: I can see how agents would love this. Physical staging can cost 500 to 2,000 dollars per month for rental furniture. Virtual staging at 100 per room is a fraction of that. Lucas: Sarah's biggest challenge was convincing older agents that digital staging looked as realistic as physical staging. She overcame that by sending them samples where she overlaid furniture into real photos with convincing lighting and shadows. Once they saw it, they were sold. Luna: What specific software does she use now? Lucas: She currently uses Interior AI and the free version of Canva for quick touch-ups. But she started with BoxBrownie, which is a cloud-based tool specifically for real estate virtual staging. It has a library of thousands of furniture pieces and allows you to adjust scale and placement easily. Luna: Did she ever run into a problem with a client not liking the staging? How does she handle revisions? Lucas: She includes one round of revisions in her pricing. After that, she charges 25 dollars per additional revision. She says most clients are happy with the first pass because she sends a preview in low resolution for approval before finalizing. Luna: So she's essentially doing consulting — advising on which style fits the target buyer demographic, not just blindly placing furniture. Lucas: Exactly. She consults with the agent on the vibe of the neighborhood and the likely buyer. For a starter home, she'll use modern furniture in neutral tones. For a luxury condo, she'll use high-end pieces with accent colors. That consultative element is what justifies her premium pricing. Luna: How many rooms does she stage in a typical month to hit 15K? Lucas: She does about 150 rooms a month. That sounds like a lot, but she's efficient. She baches similar style requests, uses templates, and reuses furniture elements. She also hired a virtual assistant from the Philippines to handle basic masking and photo prep, which freed her up to focus on the creative part. Luna: Wow, so she's actually built a mini-agency. What's her profit margin? Lucas: She says her margin is around 80 percent. Her main costs are software, the VA at 500 dollars a month, and some marketing. She's now thinking of creating a course to teach other agents how to do virtual staging, which could be another revenue stream. Luna: I love that she's scaling her expertise. For our listeners who might want to try this, what's the first step? Lucas: First, learn a basic virtual staging tool. BoxBrownie has a free trial. Spend a weekend practicing on photos from real estate listings that are already sold — you can find those on Zillow. Then offer to stage one room for a friend who's an agent. Once you have a portfolio of three to five samples, start reaching out on LinkedIn with a value-first approach. Luna: And don't undersell yourself. If you deliver high-quality work, 100 dollars per room is reasonable. Lucas: Exactly. The real estate market is always turning over listings, and agents are constantly looking for ways to make their listings stand out. Virtual staging is a growing niche that doesn't require heavy investment. If you have an eye for design and basic tech skills, it's a solid side hustle. Luna: Alright, that's all for today. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And remember, whether you're a teacher or a truck driver, there's always a way to turn your skills into a side income. Keep building.