installed staging four days before punch list. cost me 2,300.

Full gut on a 2,100 sf two story, 148k of scope, and I was chasing a listing date because the agent had a broker open on the calendar. Punch list was at maybe 30 items when I let the stagers in. Touch-up paint, three outlet covers, a shower door adjustment, closet shelving in the primary.

What that cost:

Painter came back and had to work around a staged living room and a made bed. Two hours became five and a half at 65 an hour, plus he charged a return trip fee of 150. Call it 380.

The closet shelving install put dust on a rented duvet and two pillows. Stager's damage schedule billed cleaning at 240, and one pillow got written off at 95.

Bigger one: the shower door adjustment needed the glass out, the installer wouldn't work with a rented bench and rugs in a 40 sf bathroom, so we paid the stager 600 to pull and reset that room. That's their minimum partial de-stage and reinstall.

And the broker open happened anyway with the outlet covers still off, which was the whole reason I rushed.

Total 1,315 in hard invoices plus about a week of my own time babysitting sequencing, which I'm calling 2,300 all in and that's generous to me.

What I'd do differently: staging is the last trade in the house, after final clean, with zero exceptions. If the punch list isn't closed, the install date moves and the broker open moves with it. I knew this. I let a calendar date override it.

Answer

1devon_pierce Get yoursPRO5

The sequencing rule is right but I'd write it tighter than "staging is last." Staging goes in after final clean, and final clean goes in after punch sign-off by you personally walking it, not the super saying it's done. Your painter and your shower guy weren't the problem. The problem was that somebody told you punch was 30 items and you treated 30 items as close to zero.

The other thing worth pulling out of your invoices: the 600 partial de-stage and reinstall is a contract term, not a penalty. Most stager agreements have a minimum for any room they have to touch twice, and it's usually in the 400 to 700 range. If you'd read it before the install you'd have known the shower door alone was going to cost more than the painter. Ask for that number on every quote and it'll change how you sequence, because suddenly the cost of being four days early is a line item you can see instead of a surprise.

3 replies

1chriswalton8CC1CPRO8

Was the broker open actually worth anchoring the whole schedule to? Genuine question, I don't know how much those move the needle.

1ehernandez74PO2BPRO5

@sable in my limited watching, they move agent awareness and not much else, and agents find listings on the MLS anyway. Harrow, the thing I'd flag from your post is that you had a rented duvet in a house with an active trade in it. Even without the shower door, that was going to generate a cleaning charge eventually. Once the furniture is in, the house is a showroom and you can't run work in a showroom.