Virtual staging is an image edit, not a video generate

Edit the listing photo. I2V after the furniture is approved.

Virtual staging is a change to an existing room photograph: a sofa where the empty floor is, a lamp that shows scale, a table that proves the dining alcove is a dining alcove. It is not a cinematic walkthrough of a house the model invented. If you skip the still and generate video of "a staged living room at golden hour," you have a generate. You do not have a listing.

The AI photo editor is the surface for that instruction. Nano Banana 2 Edit is a Google row on that shelf: prompt-based image modifications, image required, edit-image and image-to-image, 8 credits listed (4 discounted). Qualities 1K / 2K / 4K. audio is null. There is no duration. You are changing a picture someone already signed.

Furniture is an instruction, not a scene

"A bright staged condo, Scandinavian, cinematic" is a new picture. "Place a sofa on this empty wall, keep windows, floor, and ceiling" is an edit. Staging lives in the second sentence.

The photo editor's rule is the product: say what to change; what you did not mention is supposed to stay. Instruction editors still re-render the whole frame, so the honest workflow is compare-then-keep. Versely holds the original next to the result so you can spot the wall that quietly warmed or the stain that vanished. Vanished defects are not staging. They are a condition problem. Virtual staging ethics is the disclosure half: identify the image as altered, and pair it with the unaltered room.

One object per run when you can. Sofa. Then lamp. Mask when the sentence is not precise enough — three windows, and you only mean the left one. requires_image is true on Nano Banana 2 Edit. If you do not have the listing photo, you are generating a house.

Approve the after still

A staged jpeg is not locked because one take looked furnished. It is locked when:

• the architecture still matches the empty room
• furniture is a suggestion of scale, not a claim that it conveys
• nothing structural moved (no new window, no vanished crack, no invented view)
• you would publish the pair: empty and staged

Pick the quality tier the crop needs — 1K, 2K, or 4K on this row. Match the listing photo's aspect. Asking for 9:16 on a 4:3 interior is a crop dressed as a sofa. max_reference is 14, a ceiling not a quota. One locked empty room is the usual input.

What the listing photo is not allowed to become

Staging changes what could sit in a room. It should not change what is wrong with one. Do not prompt out water stains, a cracked driveway, or a view the window does not have. No amount of "virtually staged" labelling turns a concealed defect into a disclosed one. Do not generate a furnished room from text and pretend the listing photo was the source. The upload is the spec.

I2V only after the pair is honest

Motion is a later row. Animate the approved staged still — a slow push across the sofa you placed — only when someone has signed that still. Image-to-video will hold frame one as the file you sent. It will also hold every lie in that file for four to thirty seconds.

Do not generate a walkthrough instead of the edit. A video model will invent a hallway and a nicer kitchen. That is a new property. The cheap place to argue about furniture is an image credit, not a clip rate. When the pair is honest, then buy seconds. Caption that the room is virtually staged. The furniture job ended when the sofa sat.

FAQ

Can I skip the still and generate a staged walkthrough from a prompt?

You can waste the credits. You will not get this listing's windows. Edit the listing photo. Approve the furniture. I2V that file if you need motion.

Does Nano Banana 2 Edit work without an upload?

No. requires_image is true. Categories are edit-image and image-to-image. Generate a sketch elsewhere if you have no photo; do not call that a listing.

Should I animate the empty room or the staged room?

Animate the still you will publish, after it is approved. If the MLS pair is empty plus staged, you may motion either file. Do not motion a take you would not hang next to the original.

Why not do staging inside the video prompt?

Because furniture is identity. Video credits are a terrible identity debugger. Eight image credits (four discounted on this row) are how you keep the plate. Motion comes after the yes.