Do you have a keen eye for what needs fixing in a home? Does the idea of dressing a house to be sold quickly get you fired up? If so, a career in home staging could be an excellent path for you – not only will your services be invaluable to clients who want their properties to be desirable to potential buyers, you’ll also build a great deal of trust to grow your design career steadily.
So how do you go about becoming a professional home stager? There are a few steps involved to make sure you hit the ground running with the best possible knowledge and skills under your belt. Stick with us as we walk you through what’s required in order to succeed in this role!
Enroll in a home staging course
Some careers will allow you to enter into the field without any prior training, as proper techniques, theory, and practices do not exist. Home staging is not one of those careers.
In order to be successful in this role, you’ll need to obtain the right education and certification – after all, clients are going to depend on you to use the right techniques to banish clutter, display their decorative items in creative and attractive ways, and figure out what repairs need to be made. This knowledge can only be obtained from proper training, and that’s where staging courses come in!
The great news is that this is very doable, even if you’re at a point where you’re working a full-time job and have a number of different priorities to juggle. Online home staging courses are designed especially with busy professionals in mind – you can structure your learning around your lifestyle and complete the course while working or raising a family. They also contain business training, so once you graduate you’ll have the skills to start your own business!
Obtain your staging certification
Throughout your home staging training, you’ll learn how to depersonalize and declutter, as well as how to create beautiful curb appeal for your clients’ homes. These skills, and many others, will be invaluable to you after your home staging course. As a result, your staging certification will be a serious testament to your knowledge of the design industry – specifically to your familiarity with how to properly stage homes.
You can use your design designation after your name, on business cards, and various other places to show potential clients what you’re capable of. Although home staging is unregulated (meaning that there are no specific education requirements for staging homes), your training and certification will set you apart in a big way!
Never underestimate just how far your knowledge can take you, and how impressive it will be to clients. Plus, entering into a career as a home stager with confidence in your abilities is a huge bonus!
Build your designer portfolio
With a home staging class and staging certification under your belt, you’re armed with everything you need to start your career, right?
Wrong.
This is a visual industry, and as such, having a home design portfolio is the key to becoming a professional home stager (in addition to your education and certification, of course!). If you’re low on experience, don’t worry – there are many ways to build up your portfolio as a home stager without having a list of projects you’ve worked on.
First of all, you can absolutely use your course work, such as the hands-on assignments you complete and submit photos of. Place your very best work in your portfolio (even add your grade in there, as well!) to show clients what you’ve worked on in the past and the feedback you received. Another great way to beef up your visual showcase is by designing and staging your own home – spend some time staging your basement or living room, take some before and after shots, and watch your design portfolio start to take shape!
Pro tip: Always treat your portfolio as a work in progress, and add to it as you work on new projects. Potential clients will always want to see what you’ve recently worked on and your own style, so don’t be afraid to replace photos and change things up as you go!
Pump up your online presence
It’s no surprise that home staging is a popular service that is in high demand. This makes it both a rewarding and profitable career, but it also means that you’ll need a strong online presence to be successful as a home stager. In order to stand out from the competition, being active on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is key, and it goes without saying that you’ll need a beautiful, user-friendly website.
Clients who need to sell their homes quickly will most likely look online for home staging professionals, so making a quick and positive first impression is what you’ll need to do to land that staging job. Your social media presence goes hand-in-hand with your home design website, and you’ll need to carve out time each day to post new content, increase your audience, and keep a sharp eye out for other home stagers in the area. Being available daily on social media gives you a much better chance of connecting with designers/clients who may need a home stager, or even catching the eye of a real estate company who is on the hunt for professional stagers.
Pro tip: Listing your home staging services in public directories is an excellent way to get your name out there! Many homeowners who are in the market for certified home stagers don’t know where to look, so they look to a search engine for help. You want to be sure that your business is listed.
Maintain relationships with clients
As mentioned earlier, professional home stagers establish a great deal of trust with their clients that is built on their expertise and encouragement. Clients need to feel that they can depend on home stagers to make the best possible choices in order to sell their home quickly and for the best price. If this is accomplished, a strong relationship will form automatically.
As a home stager, therefore, it’s extremely important to keep in touch with previous clients and encourage them to refer your services – you never know which friends or family members may be in need of staging expertise, and a happy client will always want to share a qualified and capable professional!
