Frequently Asked Questions

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Becoming a Home Stager

While there is no licensing required to become a home stager, certification through an accredited training program is essential to your success. The Staging Design Professional® online staging certification course will prepare you in every way to launch and grow your staging career.

Staging Studio is Internationally accredited by the Real Estate Staging Association (RESA), the International Association of Home Staging Professionals (IAHSP) and the Home Staging Association in the U.K. (HSA).

There are very few training programs that pass the rigorous RESA accreditation process. RESA is serious about making sure the training companies that they accredit cover the prescribed objectives and set home stagers up for success. RESA even verifies every quoted home staging statistic in our courses.

There are many factors that make Staging Studio’s training the best home staging certification. Unlike many training providers, the Staging Studio classes were created by a team of home staging professionals who actively stage homes on a daily basis. Other training providers often assume that you know how to stage and just teach you about business. Staging Studio gives you a solid foundation of design principles and color theory while also teaching you the business of staging.

Other benefits of studying with Staging Studio is that our SDP® course includes a small group coaching call, the staging contract and proposal we use in our own staging business, a full module on color theory, our wholesale vendors list, and the ability to attend our 3-day hands-on Master Class at our stager training center in San Antonio, TX.

Principles of great design are the basis for everything you will learn. You will be able to confidently articulate the strategic reasons for every staging recommendation you make.

Everything you need to start and grow your home staging business is included. You will finish your SDP® certification ready to hit the ground running. Your course also features over 50 forms, checklists, and resources for your business, including home staging contracts, a vacant staging proposal, and documents for your occupied staging leave-behind folder.

We've also launched our Staging Business Blueprint course if you need extra help getting your business set up! In this mini-course, we'll hold your hand through every step.

Absolutely! You will discover so many ways to improve and enhance your home staging business. You have been using your amazing intuition, but now you will have the staging tools and skills to take it to the next level.

“Do not hesitate in taking this course! I have been in the design business for seven years and I gained so much useful knowledge. I feel completely ready to hit the ground running in this next chapter of my business life!” - Jessica Gruber, Staging Design Professional®

“As the owner of a home staging business for over 5 years, this course taught me that there is still a lot to learn about operating and growing a home staging business.” - Jennifer Lipman, Staging Design Professional®

How much a stager makes is entirely up to the home stager. Your level of training, quality of your network, entrepreneurial drive, your area's real estate market, and so much more, all factor into how much you will make as a home stager.

The Staging Studio training will set you up to build a profitable business much faster. We started our own staging business a few months before the financial and real estate market crash of 2008 and have built our business into a multi-million dollar company. You can make a GREAT living as a stager with our proven systems!

This blog goes deeper into what average home stagers make.

Which Staging Certification Is Right for Me?

The Staging Design Professional® online certification course includes everything you need to launch (and rock!) your staging career. There are 15 training modules, plus all of the forms, contracts, and checklists that you will need to run your home staging business. PLUS! You get a one-hour group coaching call, placement on our Find a Stager map, and your SDP® certification badge to use on your marketing materials.

The Staging Design Professional® certification course is completely online and will transform your existing business. You will gain so much knowledge and insight that will upgrade your staging while increasing profit.  There are 15 training modules, plus all of the forms, contracts, and checklists that we use in our own business.

You get a one-hour small group coaching call with Staging Studio Co-Founders Debbie or Julie, a listing on the Find a Stager directory, and your SDP® logo to use on your website and marketing material.

After completing the online training, you are eligible to come to the Master Class – a life-changing three-day workshop.

Yes! The Staging Studio Master Class is seriously the very best stager training experience on the planet. Once you complete Staging Studio’s online home staging course, you will be eligible to attend the hands-on staging workshop at The Studio, the state-of-the-art stager training center in San Antonio, Texas. There, you will learn from the entire Staging Studio team, pull real inventory in the warehouse, complete practice stages in the training center, and so much more.

The SDP® Pro course is perfect for you. It is designed for staging team members, so you will gain all of the skills and confidence to be a Staging Design Professional®, without having to pay for the business and marketing modules that are not necessary for you.

Staging Studio created a home staging course for agents like you. Earning this prestigious staging certification will make you the top-producing agent in your market! PLUS, you get to add SDP® (Staging Design Professional®) behind your name. Impressive!

Absolutely. The SDP® Pro course was designed for the stagers on your team. They will gain all of the skills to stage confidently, without learning how to start their own business and become your competitors.

Staging Studio is passionate about helping you be confident and successful in your staging career. To be a successful home stager, you must have a solid foundation in design principles and color, as well as marketing, efficient systems, and business savvy. The SDP® course and in-person Master Class experience are perfect for leveling up your staging design, marketing, and business skills.

Staging Studio offers three levels of the SDP® course so you can take the one that best suits your home staging career goals. The SDP® Agent course is for real estate agents who want to learn how to stage, without the home staging business and marketing training. The SDP® Expert course includes everything you need to know to stage AND operate a home staging business. The SDP® Master Class takes that to the next level with a hands-on home staging workshop.

We also offer a version of the course that home staging business owners and managers can purchase to train their team, the SDP® Pro course

You can upgrade your SDP® course at any time. SDP® Agents may contact us to upgrade to the Expert Level. Certified SDP® Expert Stagers are uniquely qualified to attend Staging Studio's in-person workshop, the Master Class.

Specialty Courses & Resources for Home Stagers

It’s a great idea to diversify your home staging business with additional revenue streams like color consultations and Airbnb styling. Or, if staging is not your thing, you could build your entire business around those types of services.

Staging Studio's Master Color Consultant® will prepare you to confidently select tile, paint, fabric, and other finishes for color consultation clients. The Short-Term Rental Stylist® certification gives you all the skills and tools you need to successfully design profitable and beautiful vacation rentals.

The color training in the SDP® course is a good basic foundation, but it is just one module. It is enough for you to stage with color, but probably not for doing color consultations regularly. The Master Color Consultant® course is much more in-depth. This course is 11 modules of color training videos, plus hands-on exercises using the color kit that you receive in the mail after registration.

Our Staging Design Professional® program covers pricing basics, but if you’d like to dive deeper into specific pricing strategies and formulas, the Pricing Lab for Home Stagers™ is for you. You’ll finish the course and case studies with the exact prices to win bids and earn profits.

Yes! We have created so many resources to help you to market your business and find clients. Staging Studio’s marketing presentation is designed for real estate agent lunch and learn events and will help you sell potential clients on the benefits of staging – and set YOU up as the expert.

These social media templates for home stagers will set the groundwork for your social media channels and even include email marketing templates, too.

The Staging Studio Society is a Facebook group where you can post questions and share your experiences with other stagers. Click the “Join Group” button, answer all of the membership questions, and then one of our admins will review your request.

We host regular Facebook Live sessions and encourage members to submit questions. This group is an invaluable ongoing resource for anyone in the home staging industry.

Registration & Payment

Your course starts immediately! You have access to the entire online course as soon as you complete the registration process, and you can complete it anytime, anywhere at your own pace. The home staging training videos are as bingeable as Netflix.

All Staging Studio courses, templates, and other products expire 1 year after purchase. Contact us to renew access.

The Staging Studio team is so confident that these courses will be invaluable to you, that if you are dissatisfied with the training, you will be offered a full refund within 30 days of purchase. We simply ask that you complete the full training before making a judgment on its merits.

Each course purchased is for one student only and may not be shared. Staging Studio retains the copyright to all of the training provided. You are free to use the forms and checklists in your own business, but please do not distribute them in any other way without express permission from Staging Studio.

When you and a friend sign up together for the SDP® Expert course, you each will receive $100 off. Contact us for the applicable Staging Studio coupon code.

Yes! While your certification never expires, access to your course materials ends one year after registration. By enrolling in the annual membership, you maintain access to your training materials and any updates. Staging Studio frequently adds exclusive new content to the Staging Design Professional® course, like the vacant home staging proposal and home staging contract templates. These documents alone are worth the small annual membership fee. Contact us to renew your membership.

We hold nothing back in our courses – we give away the farm! Since we openly share so much proprietary information about our pricing, marketing, and business model, Staging Studio’s Master Class, Pricing Lab for Home Stagers™, social media templates, and marketing presentation are not available to students in the San Antonio or Austin areas, which is where our own business is located.

Staging Studio believes that the home staging industry should be open to anyone who loves home decor and has the entrepreneurial drive to start their own business. We also believe that training is an essential part of building a successful business. Although our prices are kept as low as possible for everyone, we recognize that some need assistance. The Staging Studio scholarship program is for stagers, from stagers. Click here to fill out the scholarship application.

It is wonderful to transform houses, but even better to transform lives. When you invest in your success through Staging Studio’s training, you not only invest in yourself, but you also contribute to other stagers’ success through the Staging Studio scholarship program. Upon registration for your course, Staging Studio contributes a portion of your fees to the scholarship fund, which goes to helping people with financial need pursue their training to become a home stager.

Taking the Courses

Easy as A-B-C. You will be guided through step-by-step and can track your progress as you move through the modules. Plus, the Staging Studio team is here to help you along the way. Just reach out via the chat box on our website with any questions as you work on your course.

All of our online courses can be watched anytime, on your own schedule.

The Staging Design Professional® Expert course takes about 15 hours – we suggest taking 15 days to cover the 15 modules. The SDP® Pro course is around 8 hours.

Most people will need a minimum of 6-8 hours to complete the Master Color Consultant® course. We recommend spreading that out over a week, going through a couple of modules each day.

The Pricing Lab for Home Stagers™ totals around 4 hours of video. For most students, the course takes over 10 hours to complete because of all of the interactive case studies, worksheets, and formulas.

Yes! Any of the forms, contracts, checklists, etc. included in your online courses can be customized for your own business and shared with your clients. However, please do not distribute them in any other way without express permission from Staging Studio.

We are not messing around. You will know your stuff after completing the training! You must pass a short quiz at the end of each video module to earn your Staging Design Professional®, Master Color Consultant®, or Short-Term Rental Stylist® badge. Don’t worry – you can retake the quizzes as many times as you need to. There is no cumulative test at the end, just the quizzes throughout the three certification courses. The other supplemental courses do not include quizzes.

While Staging Studio does not offer any formal method of job placement, we are confident that your certification will set you up for success! Staging Studio’s certifications are extremely well-recognized in the industry, making you more marketable and confident as a home stager.

As a certified SDP®, Master Color Consultant®, or Short-Term Rental Stylist® with active membership, you will have exclusive eligibility to be listed on the Find a Stager directory. Prospective clients in your area will use this map to find YOU for their next staging job.

If you would like to market your services on our Find A Stager map, you will need to fill out this submission form.

This is an exclusive marketing tool for active Staging Studio members. If your course has expired, you will need to renew access before completing the submission form.

If you purchased the course with the one-time payment plan, your certificate will be emailed to you as soon as you complete the course and pass all the module quizzes. If you purchased the course with the payment plan, your certificate will be emailed to you within 2 business days of your final payment.

Attending the Staging Studio Master Class

We don't know of any other training course that provides the same foundation in design, color, business, marketing, and branding. The Master Class is so jam-packed, it is important for everyone to come to it with the same supporting education. For that reason, you must complete the online SDP® Expert Level course prior to attending. You can bundle the courses together and enroll in the SDP® Expert Level and Master Class at the same time.

The Master Class is located at our state-of-the-art stager training facility, “The Studio,” in San Antonio, TX.

The Master Class is only offered in San Antonio, Texas. This is where our own staging business is located. Instead of meeting at one of your competitor’s businesses – or in a hotel meeting room – we have built a state-of-the-art stager training facility at our staging warehouse and showroom, called The Studio.

The three-day workshop is packed with learning systems that will make you more efficient and profitable. Personal training, coaching, and Q&As with Staging Studio Co-Founders, Debbie Boggs & Julie Young, along with our entire team. Every moment is an opportunity to learn! 

Download the agenda here to get a better idea of everything that will be covered during your time with us.

We will have a professional photographer onsite to capture you staging in action. These photos will be great for your staging portfolio and social media, so dress in a way that is comfortable for active staging, but also what you would want on your website. Keep in mind that our local South Texas weather is usually pretty hot, so check the forecast before you pack. You will be on your feet a good bit, so wear comfortable shoes.

Any friend of yours is a friend of ours. If you register together, each receives $100 off the Master Class. We highly recommend business partners coming together, but the class is limited in size and each participant must be registered on their own. Contact us for this discount code.

In the event of an emergency that makes it impossible for an applicant to attend the Master Class after registering, we will do our best to transfer you to an alternate scheduled date. For changes more than 45 days before the class begins, a $200 transfer fee will apply. For changes less than 45 days ahead, a $500 transfer fee will apply. Any cancellation less than 14 days from the class start date forfeits the course fees and the right to transfer to another date. Refunds for the Master Class will not be granted unless the decision to cancel has been made by Staging Studio.

We typically cap the Master Class at 16 attendees. It's important to us to keep the group small, so you get the hands-on, personal attention you need to thrive.