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Zillow has purchased Virtual Staging AI, a company specializing in digital property staging. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Zillow pointed Inman to an Oct. 8 blog post, in which the portal leader said it will “bring this technology to real estate professionals as part of Zillow’s broad suite of software and advertising solutions.”
That “broad suite” is colloquially known as Zillow’s “Super App,” a collection of software products, some integrated, some not, designed to offer listing marketing services for agents and more market-ready properties for their sellers. The industry largely misconstrued the concept of the Super App as some sort of stand-alone consumer-facing panacea for overcoming search and transaction challenges.
Largely marketed under ShowingTime+, the pace at which Zillow is introducing agent-facing business tools doesn’t seem to be slowing. It launched Listing Showcase with whole house tours and navigable floor plans in 2023 and recently improved its search experience with natural language AI. It acquired image marketing company VRX Media in 2022 and then photography management solution Aryeo in Summer 2023, using both to power what is now Listing Media Services, Zillow’s property marketing services provider.
“The acquisition of VSAI underscores Zillow’s commitment to enabling the real estate industry to become more digital, integrated and productive,” the blog post said. “By leveraging Zillow’s tech, AI and product expertise, real estate professionals can focus on serving their clients with the high-value, person-to-person work that makes a customer experience exceptional.”
Inman reviewed Virtual Staging AI in 2023, highlighting its intuitive experience, its AI’s photo-realism and the pace of its renderings. It was co-founded by Michael Bonacina and Mikhail Andreev, who as students worked on its foundations within Harvard Innovation Labs.
“The user needs only upload a high-quality image and choose the room type from a drop-down list, such as bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, living room and so on. Images are rendered as you wait and can be redone if the first iteration isn’t what you’re looking for. The style defaults to mid-century modern, but new interior design themes are available,” the review stated.
The company’s digital staging products will still be available through its eponymous website, with Zillow stating that it’s working on a full integration into Zillow Showcase.
