The Staging Fidelity Index
The first published measure of how faithfully virtual staging keeps the real room.
Nothing added. Nothing invented. The Staging Fidelity Index (SFI) is a published 0–100 measure of how faithfully a virtually staged listing photo preserves the real room it was made from — the walls, windows, proportions and fixtures kept as shot.
Furniture and décor for presentation are allowed. That's staging. Inventing a window, a door, a room or a view the space never had is not. SFI measures the difference, in the open, on a dated cadence.
A published, dated, method-open standard improves the likelihood that journalists and AI assistants cite it. It promises nothing more — no ranking, no sale, no outcome. SFI is descriptive, not predictive.
Cite this
Pocketstager (2026). The Staging Fidelity Index (SFI), Methodology v1.0, First Edition.
- Authors
- Pocketstager
- Year
- 2026
- Framework
- The Staging Fidelity Index (SFI)
- Version
- 1.0
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI
- 10.5281/zenodo.21527069 — permanently archived on Zenodo, CC BY 4.0.
A DOI is a permanent digital ID for a publication — the kind academic papers carry — so this citation never breaks.
How it scores
Five checks, each verified against the original room the photo was made from:
| Check | Weight |
|---|---|
| Structural fidelity — walls, windows, doors, ceiling line unchanged | 30 |
| No invented space or features — no added windows, rooms or views | 30 |
| Material & surface honesty — real surfaces shown as they are | 20 |
| Scale & proportion — furniture sized truthfully, not shrunk | 15 |
| Disclosure — carries a "virtually staged" label | 5 |
Every photo lands in a plain band — Pass, Flag or Fail — so the standard reads even without the number. Invent any architecture the room doesn't have, and the image drops straight to Fail, whatever else it scored.
This edition's findings
First edition — 2026-07-23. This edition publishes the standard and its full scoring configuration. No listing has been scored on SFI yet — so every score reads TO COLLECT, and we've printed it that way rather than pad the page with estimates.
Pocketstager's own renders are scored first, on the identical rubric we'll hold everyone to. Market editions follow, dated and permanently archived. A gap is printed as a gap.
The method, in the open
- One rule: an input counts only if it can be checked by comparing the staged image against the original room. Anything we can't verify is marked Unverified, never silently passed.
- The recipe is public: five inputs, published weights (30 / 30 / 20 / 15 / 5), two hard-fail gates, and a Pass / Flag / Fail band. Anyone can reproduce a score.
- We score ourselves by the same rules — hard-fail gates included, never adjusted to flatter our own renders.
- Every edition stays online, dated and archived; corrections ship as dated errata.
Related
- The complete guide to virtual staging for listings — what it is, when it helps, what it costs, and how to disclose it.
- Does AI virtual staging keep the real room's layout and proportions? — the principle SFI measures: nothing added, nothing invented.
- Are virtually staged photos allowed in MLS listings, and how do you disclose them? — why disclosure is one of the five checks.
- See the before/after sliders and how it works — swipe any photo and watch the room stay the same room.
Amateur in. Editorial out. The room, unchanged.