Turnkey set-up: arriving in a home that is ready to live in

A turnkey set-up condenses a home’s entire fit-out into the weeks before an arrival: utility contracts switched on, deliveries received, furniture assembled, first essentials put together, a final clean and basic shopping. Run by your dedicated French Realty contact, it is steered from abroad, through written validations and photos, and closes with a snagging list. You set your bags down in a home where everything works: the bed is made, hot water runs, the fridge is waiting.

This service applies to the letter the method described in the guide on furnishing a home from afar: the same dimensioned plan, the same milestone reviews, the same photo validations. It is simply the version coordinated for you, end to end.

What exactly does a turnkey set-up cover?

The word “set-up” covers six distinct workstreams, prepared together and carried out in order:

• Switching on the contracts: energy, water, home insurance, internet, with subscriptions, activation appointments and meter readings.
• Receiving deliveries: every expected piece of furniture and appliance, checked on opening, photographed, installed in its room.
• Assembly and installation: furniture built, wall units fixed, appliances put in place and connected.
• The first-essentials kit: bed made, everyday crockery, household textiles, a welcome kit with bathroom basics.
• The final clean: carried out after assembly and before your arrival, with basic products left in place.
• Basic shopping: fridge and cupboards stocked for the first days, from a list you have approved.

Your dedicated contact orchestrates the whole: holding the calendar, receiving deliveries, calling in service providers described by their trade and reporting to you at each step. French Realty informs, guides and coordinates; the decisions remain yours, and every stewardship service is quoted.

How does a set-up unfold, from the first exchange to your arrival?

The process follows a backward-planned calendar, set to your arrival date. Everything starts from a written brief: your list of expectations room by room, the property’s usage, your constraints. Orders are then placed so that deliveries arrive before you do, utility appointments are fixed, access to the property is organised, keys, codes, caretaker. Then comes execution: every delivery received produces a photo report, every assembly is checked. Finally, the closing preparations: cleaning, bed made, shopping, and a complete photo tour, room by room, showing you the home exactly as it will be.

Each step produces a deliverable, and every deliverable is validated in the same way:

Step before arrival	Deliverable	How it is validated
Brief and calendar	List of expectations per room, back-planned schedule of deliveries and appointments	In writing, with your choices settled
Utility contracts	Certificates, customer numbers, meter readings	Through the supporting documents filed
Receiving deliveries	Photos of parcels and unpacking, reservations noted where needed	Through a photo report for each order
Assembly and installation	Furniture assembled, appliances connected and tested	Through overall photos and filmed tests if needed
Cleaning and shopping	Home cleaned, bed made, cupboards stocked	Through the final photo tour, room by room
Handover of the file	Set-up log, manuals, warranties, snagging list	Through your written sign-off, reservations cleared

Transparency is not an add-on: it is the very principle of the service. At no point do you discover the state of the home as you step off the plane; you have seen it, approved it and, where necessary, had it corrected before leaving.

Setbacks are part of the game: a delivery pushed back, an item out of stock, a utility appointment rescheduled. What distinguishes a coordinated set-up is how the setback surfaces: reported the same day, with its consequence for the calendar and the proposed fix, rather than discovered on arrival. This written running log also becomes, months later, the home’s memory: what was bought, when, from which trade.

For which profiles does a turnkey set-up change the stay?

Some calendars make the service decisive rather than pleasant:

• A first acquisition before a short stay: every half-day on site counts, and spending it assembling furniture or waiting for a driver is a poor trade-off.
• A furnished rental to be put back in order between tenants, where void time is paid in lost days.
• A property bought partly furnished, to be completed without redoing everything.
• A family arriving with children and luggage, for whom an immediately liveable home avoids the hotel and survival meals.

In every case, the gain is not merely comfort: it is certainty. Before take-off you know what is done, what remains and what has been reserved. If your arrival coincides with an international removal to France, the window is planned all the earlier: the lorries and the set-up cannot be booked in the same slot.

How do you prepare a set-up that suits you?

The quality of the set-up is decided in the preparation, and four elements are enough:

• A written list of expectations room by room, however approximate: what must exist, what can wait.
• Your written exclusions: colours, materials, equipment you refuse to see arrive, to forestall well-meaning initiatives.
• Simple visual references, with the clear-headedness of distance: the bed before the curtains, the chair before the light fitting.
• Organised access to the property: keys and codes, someone to contact on site, time slots when the home is accessible.
• A person reachable in your time zone for quick validations, otherwise every decision waits for your night.

The rest, your dedicated contact holds: selecting suppliers, tracking deliveries, coordinating interventions, reporting with photos. The service is described in detail on the turnkey set-up page, and the other steps of the method are gathered in the Journal’s Fit-out & installation category.

A successful set-up is decided before arrival, in the precision of the list of expectations and of the calendar. To settle yours, the complimentary study offered by French Realty lets you lay them out with your dedicated contact, according to your arrival date and the property’s real usage.