Most people who sign up for one of our home staging courses have, at some point, asked themselves whether a home stager needs to be certified.
They want to learn the art of home staging and get their home staging career off to a good start. If you’re still weighing up whether home staging is a good career in the first place, we’ve covered that in depth separately. As with most new skills, taking part in some form of training is a surefire way to fast-track your success.
But unlike accounting or engineering, where everyone knows you need to work with certified professionals, not everyone understands the rules for certification in the home staging industry.
Lets take a look at whether a home stager needs to be certified…
Is Certification Required to be a Home Stager?
Let’s address the biggest question first. Do you need a home staging certification?
The short and simple answer is no, a home stager does not need to be certified. You might need local business licenses just like any other business, but you don’t need to be a certified home stager to help clients stage their homes.
In saying that, it’s a smart business move for you to get your home staging certification as you embark on your new career for many reasons.
Getting your certification is an absolute no-brainer when you look at the advantages it brings:
- A home staging certification increases your perceived credibility in the eyes of potential clients.
- Your marketing will be leveled up with a certification badge
- You’ll have the chance to learn from experienced home stagers
- You’ll be exposed to new ways of thinking
Let’s explore these one by one…
1. You’ll Show Credibility (and convert more leads)
While you have a big interest in home staging, let’s remember that real estate transactions typically involve significant amounts of money. Your clients will want to know they are in safe hands and that you are helping them maximize the value of their homes.
Your primary sources of business will be home builders, homeowners, and real estate agents.
Homebuilders and real estate agents must be licensed to do business. But homeowners are often the key decision-makers in this industry.
The more credentials you can show to your potential client, the more comfortable they’re going to be hiring you. I believe credentials are second only to a great portfolio of previous home staging work.
For this reason, the single most important asset you gain from getting your home staging certification will be increased credibility. You will be able to list your certification and the training you received on all your marketing materials, including your online portfolio and business cards.
Let’s quickly address an elephant in the room. There is another home staging course provider who writes that it is a mistake to go “chasing after home staging credentials because you think these will give you credibility”. This is simply wrong. Before committing to any purchase, customers look for evidence to reassure them they are making the right choice. This evidence can come in many forms:
- A great portfolio of previous work
- Social proof in the form of reviews and testimonials from past clients
- Social proof in the form of industry and media recognition
- That professional training and certification have been provided by trusted third parties
Although there is no such thing as a closely regulated “certification” in the same way that there is with doctors, lawyers, accountants, and engineers, taking a home staging course and being able to say you got the certification or graduated from the course, ticks the box that an unbiased third-party has seen your home staging skills, and believes you are up to a standard to charge a fee for your services.
2. You can Level-up your Marketing
People like to see proof that they are making the right decision, and often this comes in the form of social proof.
Social proof is when people think “others have already reviewed this person, and can vouch for the quality of their work”. Social proof is what you are looking for whenever you ask friends and family for recommendations or look up reviews for a restaurant before visiting somewhere new.
The more social proof you can provide on your website, on your social media profiles, on business cards, and on any printed marketing material, the better.
3. You’ll Learn From Experienced Home Stagers
As you decide which certification course to take, consider who will be teaching you. When you get your certification from a well-established provider such as the Home Staging Institute, you can feel confident knowing that the course has been designed by someone who has been there, done that.
4. You’ll be Exposed to New Ways of Thinking
Running a home staging business involves far more than design skills. You’ll need to navigate pricing strategies, client consultations, contracts, marketing, and day-to-day operations – things that don’t come naturally to most creative professionals.
A well-structured certification course covers these business fundamentals alongside design training, giving you a more complete skillset than you’d develop on your own through trial and error. That broader perspective is often what separates stagers who stay busy from those who struggle to get off the ground.
What next?
The next step is to choose your home staging certification course.
You should be aware that the home stager certification industry is unregulated. No license is required to teach a certification course.
So where you decide to get your certification is one of the most important decisions you’ll make about your home staging career.
You’ll want to get your certification from a reputable, experienced, and fully accredited company. If you’re wondering about the investment involved, our guide on what home staging certification costs breaks down the pricing across different providers.
In years past, it was much more difficult to get your home staging certification. The certification programs were taught only locally, and the classes were held at a specific time.
But now you have the flexibility of online training. The Home Staging Institute is not only the leading online provider of home staging certification classes, but we also offer our programs online for the ultimate convenience.
You can complete your training at a time and place that works best for you. And even better? You can complete your training in as little as four weeks, depending on your schedule.
We are obviously a bit biased, but we feel our home staging training is perfect for career starters, career changers, and established industry professionals, such as realtors, real estate agents, and home stagers.
We offer a broad array of training, so we have something for everyone, from real estate professionals to freelancers just beginning their staging careers. Contact The Home Staging Institute, and you can be on your way to getting your home stager certification within 15 minutes.
