Buying and using.

You can try Blender, as you´re looking for just one feature, there´s no difference you learn to do it in Max or in Blender since you start from zero, this supposing Max to be too expensive for you, Blender is for free.
The quality level is more or less the same.
Then you must learn to light and render, and you´ll have a similar learning curve with both programs.

I know absolutely nothing about this software but adobe has something which looks like what are you asking for
https://www.adobe.com/products/dimension.html

Of course, Max has a lot more users than Blender, and usually more professional, that´s why there is better stuff from Max, wich, of course, is a very BIG program.
But a skilled person will be able to do the same with both programs

Just use the OBJ and FBX formats for importing models in whatever software you like.
In many cases you indeed need to recreate the shader in the host program and reattach the textures.

I would recommend going for Blender, with its built in EEVEE renderer you can do the match-moving of models in real-time in near photo real quality and switch seamlessly to Cycles, a top of the bill path tracing renderer for photo-real rendering, and its all free.

Some EEVEE tutorial on architectural visualization here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUf9VltV4Cc)

3ds max lack of improvements in contrast to its hefty price-tag in combination with speed Blender gets impressive list of features and improvements, also consider Houdini the most powerful software around, available for less then 300 dollars, this brings the Autodesk solution in bad spot.

Look at the comments of this 3ds max 2020 reveal, you get some feel whats going on there, (https://cgpress.org/archives/3ds-max-2020-new-features-revealed.html)

You need to buy models that are ready to render. That means that the moment you open them with Max or merge it to an existing scene, everything should be set-up and ready to go. As a buyer, you shouldn't spend time on assigning textures and other technical stuff. My advice is to look for more expensive models and seasoned sellers, they usually have their scenes ready-to-render.

I wouldn't recommend so called "photo backgrounds", I advise purchasing some house/apartment/studio interior models with existing lightning setups and staging your furniture models there.

You can buy our model.

You can do it from blender. Just need to be able to use pshop or gimp a bit. Render and scene (use the renderer you like from blender, like eeve or cycles, learn a bit on how to use them there are many tuts).

When you have your rendering alone, you can export PNGS with alpha form the render windows, open in pshop and put the background in the back and the model in front... this is the easy way but you will need to resize models etc...

The other way is to use planes inside blender for the background photos to be rendered, but I should try the first method as is easier.

Regards.