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Staged for the camera · furniture on hire, never sold · no claim about your sale price
The photographs are the product.
Most buyers decide whether to book a viewing from about eleven pictures on a screen. So a staged house is built for a camera first and a visitor second — and this page says so, including the part where we can't tell you what it will sell for, because we are not the one who decides.
11Photographs a listing usually gets
48 hrsVan to finished shot
6 wksMinimum hire, then weekly
0Items we sell you
Four numbers, and not one of them is a sale price or a percentage. That absence is deliberate and the section further down explains it rather than leaving you to notice.
Built for a camera
Put your own photographs here — and use the ones the agent actually published, not the ones you preferred. The published set is the thing that did the work.
A staged room looks different in person — Wider, emptier and more posed. We'd rather say that here than have somebody feel misled at the door — and buyers who have seen the pictures are not surprised either
The camera flattens a room — Which is why the props are bigger and fewer than anything you'd live with. A room that photographs well is not the same as a room decorated well
Eleven pictures, in an order — The order carries as much as the rooms do. We stage the ones that get photographed and leave the ones that don't
Stage to the lens the photographer is using — Ask who is shooting and with what before anybody moves a sofa. A different lens is a different plan
Daylight sets the schedule, not us — Install the day before, shoot in the morning. A shoot pushed to four o'clock in November costs more than the staging ever saved
The camera flattens a room — Which is why the props are bigger and fewer than anything you'd live with. A room that photographs well is not the same as a room decorated well
Eleven pictures, in an order — The order carries as much as the rooms do. We stage the ones that get photographed and leave the ones that don't
Stage to the lens the photographer is using — Ask who is shooting and with what before anybody moves a sofa. A different lens is a different plan
Daylight sets the schedule, not us — Install the day before, shoot in the morning. A shoot pushed to four o'clock in November costs more than the staging ever saved
Where the money goes, in the order a buyer sees it
This is the whole method. Spend down the list and stop when the budget runs out — and it's the right order whether we do the work or you do.
1 · The main photograph — Usually the sitting room. It takes a disproportionate share of the budget because it takes a disproportionate share of the decision, and that is the only reason
2 · The front of the house — The second picture in nearly every listing. A cut hedge, a clean door and the bins moved is most of it, and it costs almost nothing
3 · The hall — The first four seconds of a viewing, and the first thing that can make a house feel small. Taking things OUT of it beats putting anything in
4 · The kitchen — Clear the surfaces. Not tidy — clear. Three objects, chosen, and everything else in a box in the garage until you've sold
5 · The main bedroom — Bedding is the one thing worth spending real money on, and it's the one thing we bring that people ask to buy
6 · The bathroom — Towels, one plant, nothing personal. Twenty minutes and it photographs as a different room
7 · Outside space — Only in the right season. It is honestly not worth doing in January, and we'll say so rather than take the money
2 · The front of the house — The second picture in nearly every listing. A cut hedge, a clean door and the bins moved is most of it, and it costs almost nothing
3 · The hall — The first four seconds of a viewing, and the first thing that can make a house feel small. Taking things OUT of it beats putting anything in
4 · The kitchen — Clear the surfaces. Not tidy — clear. Three objects, chosen, and everything else in a box in the garage until you've sold
5 · The main bedroom — Bedding is the one thing worth spending real money on, and it's the one thing we bring that people ask to buy
6 · The bathroom — Towels, one plant, nothing personal. Twenty minutes and it photographs as a different room
7 · Outside space — Only in the right season. It is honestly not worth doing in January, and we'll say so rather than take the money
If the house is empty
The bigger job, and the one where staging changes the pictures most.
An empty room photographs smaller — It surprises everybody. There's nothing to give the camera scale, so a buyer reads it as cramped and can't picture a sofa in it
Full hire, and a van — Beds, sofas, lamps, art, rugs. Two installers and a day
Six weeks minimum, then weekly — Because it is hire. A slow sale costs more, and that belongs in your head before you start rather than in week nine
It all goes back — Nothing is sold to you and nothing is left behind. Collection is booked the day the sale completes
Full hire, and a van — Beds, sofas, lamps, art, rugs. Two installers and a day
Six weeks minimum, then weekly — Because it is hire. A slow sale costs more, and that belongs in your head before you start rather than in week nine
It all goes back — Nothing is sold to you and nothing is left behind. Collection is booked the day the sale completes
If you still live there
Mostly subtraction, and mostly work you could do without us.
Two thirds of it is taking things away — That part is free and you can do it this weekend. We'll say so at the consultation instead of quietly billing for it
You have to live in it afterwards — There's a version that survives a Tuesday with children in it and a version that only survives a photograph. We build the first
The family photographs come down — Not because they aren't nice. A buyer looking at your family is not looking at the room
Storage is the real cost — A month of a small unit usually costs less than the staging and does more. Budget that first and see what's left
You have to live in it afterwards — There's a version that survives a Tuesday with children in it and a version that only survives a photograph. We build the first
The family photographs come down — Not because they aren't nice. A buyer looking at your family is not looking at the room
Storage is the real cost — A month of a small unit usually costs less than the staging and does more. Budget that first and see what's left
What it costs
Consultation only
$250 fixed
- Two hours, room by room
- A written list you keep
- You do the work yourself
- Most people need only this
Key rooms
$1,400 + weekly hire
- Three rooms, chosen off the list
- Six weeks' hire included
- Install and collection in the price
- Photographs the next morning
Empty house
$3,200 from
- Ground floor and the main bedroom
- Two installers and a van
- Six weeks' hire, then weekly
- Everything collected at completion
Say the weekly figure out loud at the quote — Hire runs on after six weeks and that is the number people forget. Ours is on the quote in the same size as everything else
Install and collection are in the price — Not added at the end, and not a separate van charge that appears on the invoice
The consultation comes off — If you go on to a staging within a month. It exists so you can stop cheaply, not so you can be walked into the next thing
We don't take a percentage of the sale — It would make us interested in a number we have no control over, and that is a bad way to be paid for this work
Nothing here is sold to you — The same sofa is booked into three other houses this quarter. If you love something, we'll tell you where it came from
Install and collection are in the price — Not added at the end, and not a separate van charge that appears on the invoice
The consultation comes off — If you go on to a staging within a month. It exists so you can stop cheaply, not so you can be walked into the next thing
We don't take a percentage of the sale — It would make us interested in a number we have no control over, and that is a bad way to be paid for this work
Nothing here is sold to you — The same sofa is booked into three other houses this quarter. If you love something, we'll tell you where it came from
What staging can't do, and who actually decides
This is the section our whole industry leaves off, so it's near the top of ours instead of near the bottom.
We can't tell you what it will sell for — The buyer decides that. Anybody quoting you a percentage uplift from staging is quoting an average of other people's houses in other people's markets, and they know it
We can't move a valuation — A lender's surveyor values the building, the floor area and the street. Furniture is not on their list and is not supposed to be
We can't fix a price that's wrong — A house priced above what the road is doing gets more viewings after staging and the same problem. Your agent's pricing decides more than everything on this page put together
We can't hide anything, and wouldn't — Damp, cracks, a bad roof — a survey finds all of it, and a photograph that concealed it makes a buyer distrust every other photograph. We stage around a problem, never over it
We can't change the street or the school — Two of the things buyers weigh most heavily, and neither of them is ours to touch
What we can do — Make the pictures worth clicking on, and make the first four seconds of a viewing better than they would have been. That is a real thing, and it is the whole of the claim
We can't move a valuation — A lender's surveyor values the building, the floor area and the street. Furniture is not on their list and is not supposed to be
We can't fix a price that's wrong — A house priced above what the road is doing gets more viewings after staging and the same problem. Your agent's pricing decides more than everything on this page put together
We can't hide anything, and wouldn't — Damp, cracks, a bad roof — a survey finds all of it, and a photograph that concealed it makes a buyer distrust every other photograph. We stage around a problem, never over it
We can't change the street or the school — Two of the things buyers weigh most heavily, and neither of them is ours to touch
What we can do — Make the pictures worth clicking on, and make the first four seconds of a viewing better than they would have been. That is a real thing, and it is the whole of the claim
Most of it you can do yourself
The list is on this page rather than behind an email address. If it's the only thing you take from here, that's a good outcome and it cost you nothing.
Take a third of everything out — Not tidy it — remove it. Every room, including the wardrobes, because buyers open them and a packed wardrobe says the house has no storage
Clear every horizontal surface — Then put back three things. Kitchen worktops, windowsills, the top of the fridge, the shelf in the hall
Photograph each room on your phone first — The camera shows you what your eye has stopped noticing. It is the single most useful ten minutes in this list
Fix the small broken things — The handle, the blind, the bulb that's out. None of it changes the value and all of it changes the impression that the house has been looked after
Every light on, every curtain open — For the shoot and for every viewing, whatever the weather is doing. Lamps in the corners of the room, not just the ceiling light
Nothing personal in the pictures — Photographs, certificates, the children's drawings, the post. A buyer is trying to imagine living there and every one of those is you living there instead
Clear every horizontal surface — Then put back three things. Kitchen worktops, windowsills, the top of the fridge, the shelf in the hall
Photograph each room on your phone first — The camera shows you what your eye has stopped noticing. It is the single most useful ten minutes in this list
Fix the small broken things — The handle, the blind, the bulb that's out. None of it changes the value and all of it changes the impression that the house has been looked after
Every light on, every curtain open — For the shoot and for every viewing, whatever the weather is doing. Lamps in the corners of the room, not just the ceiling light
Nothing personal in the pictures — Photographs, certificates, the children's drawings, the post. A buyer is trying to imagine living there and every one of those is you living there instead
Swap in your own version in the editor. Keep it to one page — a checklist that runs to four pages is a checklist that gets read and not used.
Ask about your house
Tell us the photography date first if there is one. A reply within a working day, and an honest answer about whether the consultation on its own would do it.
Ask about your house
"Already taken — that's the problem" is a common answer and it is fixable. Re-shooting a relaunch is cheaper than most people expect and it is usually the first thing worth doing.
Live preview — every color, word and block is editable after you pick it.