If you want to start your staging career as a certified home stager, there are several different home staging programs you can choose from. Certified home staging courses are available online or as real life sessions that are usually offered on weekends/three-day weekends.
Of course there are pros and cons to each method of instruction. Let’s go over some of the key aspects of the courses that are available so you can help determine which one will work best for you.
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Certified Home Staging Courses Online & Offline
Home Staging Seminars
One type of home staging course is the seminar, which are of course offline courses. This is the oldest kind of course for new home stagers, and still one of the most expensive.
One available seminar option right now is a three-day course with class time from about 9 am to 5 pm. These seminars are often based in a hotel conference room. One particular program says it will “accredit” the student. In the world of educational credentials and such, accrediting a student is not really something you normally come across. Post-secondary schools can be accredited, and that accreditation is granted by regional organizations that specifically exist for this purpose.
These regional organizations are comprised of panel members made up of faculty from different schools, and these members make sure that educational programs (such as colleges) meet their standards.
When you evaluate programs, the home staging “accreditation” is something to take with a grain of salt. Terminology used in this business is not regulated by any industry-wide authoritative body.
A three-day/long weekend program will run about $1800 plus the cost of travel, food, and lodging.
Home staging seminar pros and cons
Pros: in person training may be ideal for your learning style, ability to ask and have questions answered in real time, making friends with other students
Cons: possible schedule conflicts since you have to choose dates well in advance, higher expense of program, inconvenience of travel, travel expenses, you will have to wait for all the other students to stop asking questions before you can more on to the next topic (which can fritter away your valuable class time).
Online Home Staging Courses
Online courses have been around since the mid-2000s. The founder of this program, Carrie Miller, was one of the pioneers on online staging training when she started Home Staging Institute in 2005. (Home Staging Institute has been sold.) Carrie’s goal has always been to provide home staging training that is convenient and affordable. You can check out our home staging courses here.
Other programs are available, with varying degrees of quality and credentials backing them up. If you’re not sure which program to go with, make sure there is a money-back guarantee so that you are protected. Do your research carefully. Try emailing or calling the school, just to see how responsive and helpful they are.
You can easily spend more than a thousand dollars on your online training, but spending more doesn’t guarantee that you’re getting the course that best suits your needs.
Online program pros and cons
Pros: courses are usually self-paced, no travel required, broad range of course prices so you can find one that suits your budget, independent study may better suit your learning style
Cons: You may learn better from an in person program, you won’t have access to a live instructor to receive instantaneous answers to questions
Recommended Home Staging Courses
See our list of home staging program reviews for a more detailed discussion of training programs. You can also see which ones we recommend.
Choosing a training program is a highly personal decision that has to do with many important factors like financial commitment, time frame, school credentials/instructor experience, and also which one just seems like the best fit. Please contact us if we can help in any way.
