How to Start a Career as a Home Stager

Home staging is the process of styling and decorating the rooms of a home that is for sale to look appealing for listing photos and walkthroughs. Home staging uses interior design to highlight the best features of a home in order to make it more attractive to potential buyers. For these reasons, staging a home can increase the likelihood of it selling on the real estate market.

Professional home stagers may furnish a new home, or organize and redesign a home that is currently being lived in. They may simply declutter a space or they might change a room’s decor entirely with furniture rentals. A home stager’s role is to create the best first impression for potential buyers.

Being a successful home stager requires many skills and qualities. If you're thinking of getting into this business, here are some of the staging skills you will need to have.

1. 1. Interior decorating: A great home stager will understand how to decorate a space in a flattering way, so they should look at a room with an interior designer’s eye. They may be choosing furniture, matching colors, and laying out rooms to look attractive to the widest range of people.
2. 2. Passion for real estate: Home staging is technically a real estate profession, so people working in this field should have a natural passion for real estate. Especially when starting out, it helps to research the market. Connect with real estate agents. Browse real estate listing services to see different home styles and neighborhoods. Attend open houses to see how other home stagers are working.
3. 3. Organizational skills: Home stagers need to possess excellent organizational skills, both related to their own working schedules, but also in organizing a space. As a stager, you will be your own small business, and keeping your affairs in order requires attention to detail. If you have a mind for finding order and balance in your work, home staging might be a good fit.
4. 4. Cleanliness: As a home stager, you will have to do a lot of cleaning. A staged home needs to appear spotless. Home stagers will declutter a space, clean streaks off of windows, dust cobwebs in high corners, cover stains on upholstery, and conceal scuff marks on the floor. Everything needs to be cleaned before your home is ready for potential buyers to see it.

Home staging is a great career for people who are passionate about interior decorating, real estate, and the nitty gritty details. Here is an overview of how you might start your home staging career.

1. 1. Educate yourself. Most states don’t require you to obtain a home staging certification. However, taking an online course can give you a competitive edge in the business. Browse local courses and programs to see if they might be worth it for your career.
2. 2. Work in the field. The best way to learn about home staging is by getting some experience in the home staging industry. It is unlikely you'll have any professional clients when you first start out. Ask family and friends who are selling their homes if you can help with staging. Collect photographs of the work you do so that you can build your professional portfolio. You could also become a home staging assistant and work with a home staging company to gain experience.
3. 3. Register your business. With some experience under your belt, you'll want to set yourself up as a business owner. This includes registering the business, trademarking your business name (and logo if you have one), getting business cards, buying liability insurance, and designing your website. This is how new clients will find your business, so make your website look professional with a breakdown of your complete staging services and photos of your staged homes.
4. 4. Network to build your client base. Now that your business is set up, you'll need to work on building your client base of homeowners. A good place to start is to connect with real estate agents, as they are regularly looking for home stagers to work on client's homes. This is also how you’ll get referrals for more work in the field. For the long-term growth of your business, consider joining a local real estate staging association. This will help you stay connected with other home staging professionals.

All you need is a MasterClass Annual Membership and our exclusive video lessons from prolific entrepreneur Robert Reffkin, the founder and CEO of the real estate technology company Compass. With Robert’s help, you’ll learn all about the intricacies of buying a home, from securing a mortgage to hiring an agent to tips for putting your own place on the market.