an agent handed me three listings to "stage" and I own zero furniture

Before pricing, read the rental house's trade agreement. Two things live in there that will decide whether this is a business or a liability. First, the damage terms, meaning who eats a scratched table and at what valuation, and whether there's a deductible per delivery. Second, the term mechanics, since a two month minimum with automatic monthly rollover means you're on the hook for month three if the house goes pending on day 58 and the truck can't come until day 66. Ask them to put the pickup window in the agreement as business days. Also confirm what insurance they require you to carry and whether your general liability policy actually covers rented personal property in a third party's house, because a lot of trade policies don't and your agent's seller is the one whose floor gets gouged.

Ask her one question before you price anything: has the seller signed the 1,800, or is that a number she floated at the listing appointment. Those are very different, and I've watched budgets that were "already agreed" evaporate at invoice time when the seller learned it came out of proceeds. Get it in the listing paperwork or get a deposit.

The five week window is the part I'd worry about more than the money. Three houses going live inside five weeks means overlapping furniture terms, overlapping installs, and your paint crew pulled off billable work at exactly the wrong time. If you take all three, price the third one higher, not lower.

compass's kit idea is right and I'd add that you should buy the kit whether or not you take these three. I keep a plastic tote of neutral towels, a runner, two lamps and some art in my truck for my own flips and it has paid for itself many times over on photo days. Cost me under 900 at a warehouse store and a discount home goods place. The only rule is that everything lives in the tote and goes back in the tote, because the day it starts living in a house is the day it's gone.

One more document point on top of fathom's. Whatever you sign with the rental house names you as the responsible party, and whatever you sign with the agent should push the property-condition risk back to the seller who controls access. If a buyer's kid jumps on the rented bed during a showing, you want the seller's agreement to say the seller is responsible for the property while it's in their house. Whether that clause holds up depends on your state's contract law and I'd have a licensed attorney in your state look at your service agreement once, since you'll reuse it for years.

What does the agent's usual stager charge on a house like this? You should know that number before you quote, because you're either undercutting someone with 4 week lead times who is clearly busy, or you're discovering that 1,800 is below the local market and the agent has been getting a favor rate from somebody. Either answer changes what you do here. Just ask her.

I'd also want to know whether she expects you to keep doing this at volume or whether these three are a stopgap while her stager frees up. Building a kit and a process for three one-time jobs is a different decision than building it for 20 a year.

Watch what this does to your core crew. Every unit I've turned taught me that a new service line always steals the good people first, because the good people are the only ones you trust with something unfamiliar. If your best finish guy spends two days hanging art, your punch-out schedule slips and the paint customer who pays your rent notices. Take one house, not three, and see what it actually costs you in crew hours before you decide it's a product.

Reading this thread I'm struck that half the advice is about the kit and half is about the agreement, and none of it is about whether you want to be in the staging business. If the answer is no, then the clean move is to introduce her to a second stager and stay the paint guy who makes the houses photograph well. There's nothing wrong with being the vendor she calls for the thing you're already the best at.

kestrel's version is fine but it leaves money on the table that's already sitting there. Prep work at 1,800 a house on three houses, repeatable, from a referral source you've had for five years, is a better lead source than any marketing you could buy. Take one, do it carefully, write down every hour and every receipt, then price the next two off actuals instead of guesses. And thatch, put your soft goods on a per-house consumable charge rather than eating them, because bedding and towels that go into a house with 40 showings do not come back to the tote in sellable shape.