Furnishing a Second Home in Another State: Receiving, Storage and Delivery

Owners furnishing a second home in another state can have Elite Anywhere receive the furniture near the house, hold it until they arrive, and deliver and install it, so nobody has to be there to sign for a dozen deliveries. Pieces from the owner's main home can be picked up there too, with their condition documented before they leave, and handled end to end to the new house. When everything is in, it goes into the house on one planned day, carried to the right rooms, assembled, placed and with the packaging taken away.

Furnishing a house you do not live in is a peculiar kind of project. The decisions are made in one state; the furniture has to arrive in another. Every vendor wants a delivery address and a person to sign. A sofa left on the porch of an empty house, a rug signed for by a helpful neighbor, a carton sitting in the sun for three days before anyone sees it: these are the ordinary hazards of a second home, and most of them come from the same cause, which is that nobody is there.

This article is for the owner, and often the designer working for them, who wants the new house furnished without being in it for every step.

One address for every order

The simplest change an owner can make is to stop sending furniture to the house at all until the house is ready to receive it. Instead, every order from every vendor goes to the warehouse location nearest the second home, with the owner's name on it.

Elite Anywhere has 34 warehouse locations across the country, ten of them staffed hubs, and second-home markets are well represented among them. A house in the Palm Springs desert has its furniture received at Indio. A Miami apartment has its furniture received at Doral. A house in Las Vegas uses our warehouse in Las Vegas. In each case the vendors deliver to a warehouse that takes in goods on the owner's behalf, rather than to an empty driveway; at Indio and Doral, receiving runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 3pm, by appointment.

Pieces from the main home

Second homes are rarely furnished entirely new. A dining table that no longer fits the city apartment, a pair of chairs from a parent's house, a painting the owners want to see every time they visit: these have to travel too.

Elite Anywhere collects those pieces from the main home, a storage unit or a relative's house. Each item's condition is documented before it travels, and that record goes with it. If something is collected sealed in a carton, it stays sealed unless the owner asks for it to be opened, which is free. Fragile and valuable pieces are crated in-house, climate-controlled transport is available, and the move between states is handled end to end. The pieces then join the new purchases at the warehouse location near the second home.

What happens while you are not there

The weeks between the first order and the move-in date are when an absent owner most needs someone on the ground. At the warehouse location, each delivery is checked against the list the owner or the designer sent, and its outside packaging is photographed. Every piece is barcoded, so it can be found and counted into the final delivery. The vendor's bill of lading is requested as well, because it records what physically left the vendor, which on a split order is not always what the owner bought.

If a carton arrives damaged, the owner or designer is told and decides what happens; damage is documented and the claim is filed with the vendor, which is a great deal easier than an owner trying to photograph a crushed box on a porch from another state. About two shipments in ten turn up unannounced; rather than turning one away, the warehouse traces it through the carrier or the company that sent it until the owner is identified. And if the owner wants to see inside a carton, for example to check that the fabric on a custom sofa is the one they chose, it is opened and inspected on request, at no charge.

The furniture then waits, as long as it needs to. Storage is secured and climate-controlled, with pest and humidity control, and there is no minimum period. That suits second homes particularly well, because their schedules depend on things the owner cannot control from far away: a contractor's timetable, a closing date, a permit.

It is worth adding that none of this depends on the owner being reachable every day. The warehouse holds the pieces, keeps the record and waits for an answer when one is needed, so an owner traveling for work can reply to a question about a damaged carton when they have time rather than when a driver is waiting at a locked gate.

Seeing the furniture without flying out

An absent owner's question is always the same: what has arrived? Elite Anywhere answers it in three ways.

• Photographs on request. Owners can ask for fresh photos of any stored piece, which is often all it takes to stop a worry.
• Visits. An owner who is in town can visit the warehouse location to see a piece in person.
• The portal. Account holders get a login to Elite Anywhere's own warehouse system, which lists each item and its status, shows deliveries on the way with their tracking, and lets the owner or designer message the warehousing team.

Photo check-ins and live tracking also follow each item as it moves, so a piece collected from the main home can be watched all the way to the new house.

When a designer is in charge

Many second homes are furnished through an interior designer, who places most of the orders and makes most of the decisions. In that case the designer's list is the one deliveries are checked against, and the designer is the one told about damaged packaging. The owner can still see the account, but does not have to field the questions.

For a designer, the arrangement solves a familiar problem: a project in another state with no reliable way to receive the vendors' orders. The designer can run the whole house from their own studio, with the receiving, storage and installation handled at the warehouse location near the property, and travel for the installation itself if they wish.

How it plays out for one house

Picture a couple who live and work in another state and have bought a house in Las Vegas to use for part of the year. The house needs new floors before anything can go in. They order a sectional, two beds, a dining set and outdoor furniture from five different vendors, and decide to bring a sideboard and several paintings from their main home.

Every new order is addressed to our warehouse in Las Vegas. Over six weeks the pieces arrive one by one, each photographed in its packaging, barcoded and checked against the couple's list. One carton for the dining chairs has a torn corner; the couple are told, ask for it to be opened, see from the photographs that the chair inside is fine, and tell the warehouse to store it. The sideboard and paintings are collected from their main home, their condition documented, crated and handled end to end to the same warehouse.

The couple check the login now and then and ask once for photos of the sectional. When the floors are finished, they book the installation for the morning after they fly in. By the afternoon every room is furnished, the paintings are on the walls and there is not a single box in the garage.

Timing the installation around your visit

Owners of second homes usually want the installation to happen while they are there, or just before they arrive. Because the furniture is already received and waiting nearby, the date is set by the owner's travel plans rather than by when the last vendor ships. Booking lead time is a matter of availability, so it pays to name the date the moment the travel plans are firm. Owners who are only in town over a weekend, or who land in the late afternoon, can ask for a white glove installation in the evening or at the weekend; both are offered for households. If the owner cannot be there at all, the designer often stands in for them on the day.

Delivery and installation

When the house is ready, everything goes in on one planned delivery, with several vendors' orders together rather than a dozen separate visits. A very large house that will not fit an ordinary working day is spread over more than one day, planned in advance with the owner or designer.

The routine on the day is set. A text goes to the owner or designer about 30 minutes before the crew arrives. The crew protects the route in, with blankets and coverings on doors, railings and floors, and uses professional equipment for heavy pieces. Each item is carried to its room, unpacked, assembled and placed. Beds are built, case goods leveled, mirrors and art hung, and light fixtures, chandeliers included, hung for the electrician to wire. Then every box and wrapper leaves with the crew, so the first evening in the house is spent in a finished room rather than among cartons. If the house came with old furniture the owners do not want, the crew can take it away and arrange disposal or donation, for a fee.

Before leaving, the crew asks whoever is there, owner or designer, to report any damage and give feedback. The condition at delivery is photographed, and the sign-off is documented and kept. Everything handled with care, in a house the owner may not see again for weeks.

Second homes in places without a warehouse location

Not every second home is near a warehouse location. Elite Anywhere delivers anywhere in the country, so a house in Savannah or in the Raleigh-Durham area is furnished as part of its nationwide delivery, with the same record, the same option of storage before delivery and the same installation standard. Pieces collected from the owner's main home in another state reach either place the same way, handled end to end.

Condos and managed buildings

Second homes are often apartments or condos in buildings with management, and those buildings tend to have delivery rules of their own, typically proof of insurance for the crew, a booked service elevator and a fixed time at the loading dock. An owner who is not there cannot easily arrange these. Elite Anywhere provides the certificate of insurance to the building and books the elevator and loading window, though owners who prefer to deal with their building directly can do so. If an oversized piece cannot go up by elevator or stair, it can be hoisted.

A checklist for furnishing a second home from another state

1. Choose the receiving location nearest the second home, and use it as the ship-to address on every order.
2. Put the owner's name or project name on every order, so arrivals can be matched at once.
3. Keep one list of everything ordered, and send it to the warehouse; that is what arrivals are checked against.
4. List the pieces traveling from the main home, and anything among them that needs a crate.
5. Decide who makes the calls, owner or designer, when a carton arrives damaged.
6. Find out what the building requires for deliveries, if it is a condo or apartment.
7. Pick a date for the installation once the house is ready, and let everything go in together.

The short version

Furnishing a second home in another state is mostly a problem of absence. Elite Anywhere solves it by receiving every order at a warehouse location near the house, picking up pieces from the main home and handling them end to end, keeping everything in climate-controlled storage with photographs on request until the house is ready, and then delivering and installing the whole house on one planned day, so the owner arrives to rooms that are finished.

Robert Sabo is Director of Operations at Elite Anywhere, which provides white glove delivery, receiving and installation from ten staffed warehouses, delivering nationwide.