This surprises people, because a lot of sellers want the home ready before they bring an agent through. Some of them are trying to get it styled before the appraisal, on the theory that the valuation will come back higher if the home is presenting well.

The premise makes sense. It’s still the wrong order.

Your agent has spent years building a network of trades and services. Painters, cleaners, gardeners, handymen, people who’ll actually turn up when they say. Getting access to that network shortens your timeline more than anything else you can do in the first week. Don’t underestimate that army of people.

A stylist can walk through your home whether your furniture is in it or not. We’re looking at the bones, not your belongings, so it makes no difference to us and it means you’re not waiting on an empty house to book a consultation.

Booking early matters for a different reason. Your install has to hit your photography timeline. If you’re getting dusk photos, that’s a fixed window, and everything works backwards from it. Getting on the schedule in the right spot is easier six weeks out than two.

Anything internal has to be finished before we install. Some of it needs more lead time than people expect.

Floors are the big one. If you’re having timber sanded and repolished, the guidance is generally no walking on them for around two weeks, and then only in socks. We can’t install in socks. So a floor job needs to be at the front of your schedule, not squeezed in near the end.

Painting is easier. We can usually install the day after painting is finished. It just has to be dry, since we can’t work around wet paint.

Electrical, plumbing, anything else internal: before install, not around it.

You don’t have to. A lot of homes get styled with the owners still living in them, and we work around your furniture.

If you are moving out, it goes: furniture out, then a proper clean, then we install. The clean has to happen in that gap, not after we’ve filled the house.

Gardening, pressure washing, the roof, the driveway, the general exterior tidy-up. None of it blocks an install and it can happen in the same week, as long as nothing internal is still going.

The one rule is that install day needs to be clear. We need access for the truck and the crew, and nobody else on site while furniture is going in. Pressure washing in particular is a bad match for install day, for reasons that become obvious the moment you picture it.

Photos happen the day of the install or the day after. On install day, our stylists are on site for a couple of hours after the furniture crew leave, getting everything finished. When they walk out, the photographer can walk in.

Agent. Styling quote. Trades, floors first. Move out and clean if you’re going. Exterior alongside. Install. Photos.

The one that catches people is floors. Everything else can compress if it has to.

If you’re at the beginning of this and want a real number for your property, a stylist can walk through with you and you’ll have a plan and a full quote back within 24 hours.