Home stagers: quote the project from real costs, not a guess. Free, no signup.
Your inventory has a monthly carrying cost (warehouse, insurance, capital tied up). Longer terms cost you real money.
Warehouse rent, insurance on inventory, furniture leases, wear and replacement. Enter what the pieces on this job cost you per month to own.
Utilities, internet, website, marketing, storage units, subscriptions. Everything that runs whether you stage or not.
Used to give this job its fair share of monthly overhead. Honest stagers split it across projects; broke stagers ignore it.
Pick the project preset: Vacant full stage, Occupied refresh, or Consult only. Each fills home size, rooms to stage, weeks your inventory stays in the home, and crew hours, and every field stays editable as a starting point. Longer terms cost real money because your inventory carries a monthly cost. Enter project costs: mover crew hours times rate ($85 default), assistant hours times rate ($25), your own design and install hours times rate ($75), plus truck, fuel, parking, and tips. In the inventory and overhead card enter the monthly carrying cost of the pieces on this job (warehouse rent, insurance, leases: $1,500 default), your monthly business overhead ($900 default), how many projects like this you do per month so the job gets its fair share (4 default), and your profit margin target (20 percent default). Pricing is cost-plus, so the margin survives overhead. The quote card shows a line-item breakdown, true cost, the recommended project quote, and a per-room rate for the client-facing quote. The reality check card compares your gut quote against the math: PRICED FAIRLY, WORKING TOO CHEAP with the dollars left on the table, or LOSING MONEY.
Example only, not typical pricing. Run the Vacant full stage preset with the starting numbers: 8 mover hours at $85 ($680), 6 assistant hours at $25 ($150), 16 of your hours at $75 ($1,200), and $120 in incidentals. Inventory carrying is $1,500 times 4 weeks over 4.33 ($1,385.68), and overhead share is $900 over 4 projects ($225). True cost is $3,760.68. At a 20 percent margin the quote is $3,760.68 over 0.8, or $4,700.85, about $783 per room across 6 rooms. A gut quote of $2,500 does not cover costs: the verdict is LOSING MONEY, $1,261 below true cost. The lesson is the pattern: labor is only $2,030 of the $3,760.68, and the inventory and overhead lines are the part stagers forget to price.
**Why does inventory carrying cost matter?**
Because furniture sitting in a staged home for weeks is not free. The tool prorates your monthly inventory cost (warehouse, insurance, leases, wear) by weeks on the job, which is why a 4-week term adds $1,385.68 in the worked example. Ignore it and you are lending your inventory for free.
**What counts as monthly business overhead?**
Utilities, internet, website, marketing, storage, subscriptions: everything that runs whether you stage or not. The tool gives the job its fair share by dividing monthly overhead by your projects per month.
**What does WORKING TOO CHEAP mean?**
Your gut quote covers true cost but misses the margin. The verdict shows the exact dollar gap between your gut and the cost-plus quote, so you know what to add back.
**Why cost-plus instead of a flat per-room price?**
Because margin on top of true cost survives overhead, while a flat per-room price does not adjust for term length or inventory time. The per-room line on the quote card is for the client; the math behind it is cost-plus.
**Are the preset rates market rates?**
No. Every fee and rate is an editable starting point, and the footer says prices vary by market. Set crew rates and inventory costs from your own business before trusting the verdict.