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The thought of starting a new career in home staging can be exciting. For many people who are good at decorating spaces, getting paid for home staging seems like a natural transition. Additionally, many Realtors see the value in complementing their business by offering home staging as a service for their listings.
Once you decide to get into home staging, the reality of beginning this new career can seem daunting. Where do you start? Are there home staging businesses that you can work for? How do you start your own home staging business? What is this you hear about a “certification”?
You need to start somewhere. But how?
Top 3 Ways to Start a Career as a Home Stager
There are plenty of ways to begin a home staging career, but we will highlight the top three. In addition to this list, many people get jobs staging for businesses such as furniture stores or real estate brokerages. Those, however, are jobs, and you want to start a path to a career in home staging. These three paths will get you started on your career.
Option 1. Get a Home Staging Certification
The most common way to start a home staging career begins with taking a certification program. No, home stagers don’t need to be certified, but a certification helps to show potential clients you are qualified. The largest benefit of most certification programs is the training that they include. They generally train you how to stage homes, home staging techniques, and also the business side of home staging. Want to start your own home staging business? These programs should give you the tools.
Option 2. Work for an Established Home Stager
You will learn home staging hands on, and hopefully how to run a successful home staging business. If the home stager that you work for truly cares about your career, they will teach you the tools for you to eventually run your own home staging business. Unfortunately, some home stagers are concerned about training their future competition, so they try to limit you. During the interview, ask how they would feel if you had your own business one day, and beware of any home stager that makes you sign a non-compete form.
Option 3. Jump In
A very common way that many home stagers start in the business is to just jump in. This might include Realtors who offer home staging as a service for their clients in order to differentiate from every other Realtor in their market. This might also include those who are just naturally entrepreneurial, so starting a new business from scratch is easy for them. Mistakes may be made, but you will have no option but to learn by doing. As we mentioned earlier, there is no requirement to have a certification. If you are comfortable with having no formal training, and can explain to potential clients why you don’t have a certification, this might be the quickest and least expensive way to start a home staging business.
Tools to Get Started
Knowing the ways to start your career in home staging is one thing. But how do you find a certification company, or find a home stager to work for, or know how to jump in?
Home staging certification courses come in two different categories: online and in-person.
Taking courses online is great because you can start whenever you want, work the courses into your schedule, and review past lessons whenever you want. The drawback is that you don’t have the personal interaction, and online courses require good time management.
The two online courses that are Stager Sidekick recommended are The Staging Diva and Staging Studio, both of whom we are anaffiliate for. Or visit our page of online courses for more options.
Taking courses in person is great because you get to ask questions during the lessons, interact with other students, and learn hands on. The drawback is that these courses are only offered at certain times, require a multiple consecutive days of your time, and may not be offered nearwhere you live. Visit our page of on-site courses for more options.
If you interested in seeing what home staging jobs are available, you can search any online job board. Another option is to contact you local IAHSP or RESA group and ask if any of their members are looking for help.
When you are ready to start your home staging business, remember that every business needs a website, especially home stagers. A quality, professional website provides your home staging business with great curb appeal. We can help you with your website, to ensure that your business has the curb appeal that it deserves. View your website options here.
Final Thoughts on Starting a Career in Home Staging
There is no guidebook on how to start a home staging career. You have multiple options to choose from, and which one you choose depends on your comfort level, your timeline, and your budget.
Whether you choose to take a certification course, work for an established home stager, or just jump in, your success in the business will ultimately depend on you.
