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Service · Advice first

The Advisory Staging Consultation

With an advisory consultation, a team member will walk through your property for one hour and offer expertise on how to prepare your home with what you already have.

Advisory Staging Consultation: staged living room on Dana Avenue, Columbus
Dana Avenue | Columbus

The advisory home staging consultation is the easiest way to start. A team member spends one hour walking through your property with you and shares how to prepare it for market using what you already have. Afterwards, you receive a checklist of everything discussed, so you can do the work yourself on your own schedule.

What happens during a home staging walkthrough

We go room by room in the order buyers will see the house: front door, entry, the main living spaces, kitchen, bedrooms. Along the way we talk through:

  • Furniture placement, flow and which pieces to move to another room
  • What to pack away early: photos, collections, extra chairs, countertop clutter
  • Decluttering priorities, so the effort goes where buyers will notice
  • Lighting: lamps, dark corners and how each room reads in daylight
  • Which rooms deserve most of your time, and which just need to be tidy

It's a conversation, not an inspection. Ask anything: whether the dining table should stay, what to do with the spare room, whether the gallery wall helps or hurts.

Your prepare-house-for-sale checklist

After the visit, you get a written checklist of everything we covered, organized by room. It's meant to be used: specific enough that you know which chair goes where, short enough that you'll actually finish it before the photographer arrives.

Want a hand carrying out the plan?

Some sellers are happy to work through the list themselves. Others would rather have help making the changes. Ask us about support with moving furniture, packing away personal effects and general decluttering.

When the consultation turns into occupied staging

Sometimes a walkthrough shows that a house needs more than rearranging. The living room has no rug. The guest room has become storage. The walls are bare where art should be. That's where occupied home staging comes in.

We call it supplemental staging: the same consultation, plus furnishings, art and decor from our inventory mixed into what you already own. You don't have to decide up front. Start with the consultation, and if the checklist shows gaps you'd rather we fill, we can talk about supplemental staging from there.

A proposal for your home

We prepare a custom proposal once we know a little about your home and the support you need. If your house is already empty, skip ahead to vacant home staging instead.

Want to start before we meet? Our guide on how to prepare your home for staging covers the basics. You can also compare every option on our home staging services page, or request a free estimate.

What’s included

  1. 01

    One-hour walkthrough

    A team member walks the house with you, room by room, in the order buyers will see it.

  2. 02

    Written checklist

    Everything we discussed, organized by room, so you can prepare the house yourself.

  3. 03

    Optional hands-on help

    Ask our team about help moving furniture, packing personal effects and decluttering alongside you.

  4. 04

    A clear upgrade path

    If the house needs pieces, not just rearranging, the consultation becomes the first step of occupied staging.

Advisory Staging Consultation: questions

What do I get from a home staging consultation?

A one-hour walkthrough of your property with a team member, focused on preparing the home with what you already have, followed by a written checklist of everything you discussed. You can work through it yourself, ask us about hands-on help, or move on to occupied staging if the house needs more.

Do I need to clean or declutter before the walkthrough?

No. Seeing the house as it really lives is useful, because that's how we spot what needs to change. Tidy is nice, but don't spend a whole weekend preparing for the visit. The checklist that follows will tell you exactly where your effort should go, room by room.

Can you help me make the changes?

Yes. Ask us about hands-on help with moving furniture, packing away personal effects and general decluttering. It is a good fit if you would like a second pair of hands, and a stager's eye, on the hardest parts of the list.

What if my house needs more than rearranging?

Then occupied home staging is the next step. We call it supplemental staging: we build on the consultation and bring furnishings, art and decor from our inventory to fill the gaps, mixed into the furniture you already own, so the house looks finished rather than half-staged.

How is a staging consultation quoted?

We quote each consultation directly after learning a little about the home and the help you need. Request a free estimate and our team will recommend the right scope.

Selling soon? Tell us about the house.

Send a few details and we’ll come back with an initial estimate based on the size and scope of the home. Free, and no obligation.

Request a free estimate