How To Become a Home Stager

By Jordan Fabel •  Updated: November 15, 2022  •  8 min read  •  Real Estate
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Before you decide to learn how to become a home stager, it’s important to understand this career. It might sound great, but is it the right career for you?

As a home stager, you will furnish and decorate the interior of a home, often a home up for sale. You will likely work with real estate agents and others in the industry. Let’s look at the job duties of a home stager and how you can become one.

Become a Home Stager

Job Duties of a Home Stager

As a home stager, you will need to be creative with interior decorating. Your main goal is to help home sellers get higher offers and create better listing pictures.

Some of the main job duties of a home stager include:

These are the most common job duties you will take on as a home stager. You will work to make the interior of the home look the very best it can.

How To Become a Home Stager in 3 Steps

Step #1 – Get the Right Education

You likely won’t find a college degree in home staging. However, a degree in interior design can be helpful. It’s not necessary to get a degree to become a home stager, however.

You can gain credentials from many different home staging certifications including:

Home Staging Institute – You can choose the basic home staging course, a professional course, or an advanced course from the Home Staging Institute. They also offer a home staging certification for Realtors.

All of these options offer home staging courses and certification options. With the right education and credentials, it will be easier to get hired for staging jobs.

Step #2 – Build Your Portfolio

Gaining experience in the industry is a great way to become a home stager. You might need to work with another professional stager to gain some experience and build your portfolio. It’s also possible to stage your own home or a friend’s home to build your portfolio.

Taking pictures of your work is a great way to build a portfolio. When you try to find new clients, they will want to see the work you have done in the past.

Step #3 – Market Your Business

Home stagers often work for themselves. You will need to market your business to find new clients. It’s common to work with real estate brokers and agents. Since most of your home staging will be done on homes for sale, you likely want to partner with as many real estate professionals as you can.

Common Skills You Need to Be a Home Stager

If you want to become a successful home stager, you will likely need to have or develop skills in specific areas. Some of the most common skills you need are listed below.

Passion for Real Estate

You need to enjoy real estate to become a home stager. It’s important to enjoy homes since you will be working inside homes regularly. If you’re starting out, you will need to have a stronger passion for real estate to keep you going as you build your business.

Highly Organized

You will need to be a very organized person. If you want to become a successful home stager, you will need to develop excellent organizational skills. These skills will be used to manage your work schedule, along with for organizing the spaces.

Remember, as a home stager, you will likely run your own small business. This requires great attention to detail and organizational skills.

Interior Decorating Skills

You will need to develop skills to learn how to decorate the interior of the home. This is important as the main part of your job will be choosing the furniture and furnishing for the home.

Cleanliness

Home stagers often do quite a bit of cleaning. You will likely declutter and clean to make sure the home looks spotless. Developing good decluttering and cleaning skills can be very helpful in this career.

If you want to become a home stager, you need to develop these skills. Each skill is very important to your success as a home stager.

Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a Home Stager

What is the average annual salary of a home stager?

According to ZipRecruiter, you can make a salary between $19K and $75K as a home stager. Since many home stagers work for themselves, it’s hard to pinpoint an average salary, however.

After looking at job postings from many different websites, Home Staging Institute states the average home stager salary is about $51K per year. This is just an average and you will have some control over how much you make. Of course, the more you charge and the more you work, the more you can make.

How can I make more money as a home stager?

If you want to make sure you make as much as possible as a home stager, you need the right tips. Here are a few things you can do to earn more money.

These tips can help you boost your income as a home stager.

What type of hourly wage can I expect as a home stager?

Working for yourself as a home stager, you can expect to charge rates that will net you $50 to $150 per hour. It will depend on the type of jobs you take and how quickly you can work. It’s not uncommon to make at the very least $30 to $40 per hour in this career. Since you will be working for yourself, you set the wage.

Do I need specific qualifications to become a home stager?

You don’t need any type of qualifications to become a home stager. This is an unregulated industry and anybody can claim to be a home stager.

However, it’s best to show some type of credentials. With the right online course, you can become certified in home staging.

How much can I charge as a home stager?

It’s not uncommon for a home stager to charge $300 to $800 for a one- or two-hour consultation. Once the consultation is done, the home staging job can range in price from $1,000 to $10,000.

What you charge will depend on how easy or difficult the staging job will be. The more complicated and the larger the home, the more you will likely charge for the home staging job.

Are home stagers in demand right now?

Yes, there are many real estate professionals that hire home stagers often. When a home is getting ready to be listed for sale, it needs to look as good as it can. Hiring a home stager can help make sure the home is incredibly appealing.

With the ability to sell a home for even more money, home stagers are certainly in high demand. Most people will invest in home staging if it will return a higher sales price.

Do I need to own furniture to be a home stager?

You don’t have to own furniture to stage a home. You can work with the furniture already in the home or you can rent furniture. However, many home stagers will buy items to help make the job easier and more profitable.

It’s common for home stagers to add to their collection over time. You might start with decorative items, such as throw pillows, artwork, vases, fake flowers, and blankets. Then, as you grow your business, you might add small furniture items and other items for staging.

Will real estate professionals hire home stagers?

Yes, many real estate agents will hire home stagers. They often cover the cost of a consultation. However, when it comes time to pay the bill for home staging, it’s often paid by the homeowner.

Learning how to become a home stager is the first step to entering this career. When you’re ready to move into this type of career, you need to know the steps to becoming a home stager. Use the three steps above and you will be well on your way to a new career.

Jordan Fabel

Jordan Fabel

Covering different 'paths' that people's lives can take. Creative, foster parent, ticket dismissal, you get the idea. Exploring the requirements, certifications, exams, and obviously, approved courses along each path.