Virtually staging an empty room costs a few dollars instead of a few thousand. What you may change, what you may never change, and the disclosure that keeps you out of trouble.
Physical staging a vacant three-bedroom house costs thousands of dollars a month. Virtual staging the same photographs costs a few dollars and takes an afternoon.
That gap is why virtual staging went from a niche service to a default one. It is also why the disclosure rules around it tightened, and why agents who treat it casually end up with a complaint rather than a sale.
You photograph the room as it exists — empty, or with the current owner's furniture — and then add furnishings, adjust the light, and remove clutter in the image. The room is real. The sofa is not.