Zillow wants to make it easier for buyers to imagine themselves in a home—even if it’s empty or filled with someone else’s furniture. The company has rolled out an AI-driven Virtual Staging feature to its premium Showcase listings, allowing shoppers to toggle through curated design styles and reimagine spaces in real time.
Key Points:
- Buyers can restyle rooms with design presets like modern, coastal, or mid-century.
- The tool works on empty and furnished rooms, with options to remove furniture entirely.
- Agents get a marketing boost: Showcase homes with interactive media sell faster and for more.
The new feature adds an icon to select listing photos inside Zillow Showcase. Tap it, and you can choose from styles like Scandinavian, industrial, luxury, or farmhouse. The AI instantly transforms the room—whether it’s bare or already staged—and you can slide between the original and virtual version to see the difference. There’s also a refresh button to shuffle furniture layouts for variety, and an option to wipe a room clean so buyers can see it as a blank slate.
For Zillow, the bet is that staging powered by AI will give its Showcase product an even sharper edge in a crowded housing market. According to Zillow’s own research, 71 percent of sellers prefer working with agents who use interactive media. Showcase agents already close deals faster and sell homes for about $7,000 more than comparable non-Showcase listings. Virtual Staging builds on that momentum, turning flat listing photos into interactive experiences.
The tech comes from Virtual Staging AI, a startup Zillow acquired in late 2024. Until now, the system was mostly available to real estate photographers through Aryeo, a photo delivery platform. By embedding it directly into Zillow’s consumer-facing product, the company is making staging interactive and on-demand for anyone browsing a listing.
It’s also part of Zillow’s broader push to weave AI into every stage of the buying process. Earlier this year, it launched SkyTour, an aerial viewing tool, and has been layering in computer vision and personalization features across search and recommendations. “Buying a home is an emotional decision as much as a financial one,” said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert. “Virtual Staging helps people envision themselves living in a space.”
For buyers, that might mean finally seeing past someone else’s oversized sectional or clunky dining set. For sellers and agents, it’s another way to keep eyeballs on listings longer—and maybe get a little closer to closing.