The Best Home Staging Certification Courses
Looking for the best home staging certification course to kickstart or grow your staging career? We’ve reviewed the top 5 courses in 2025 based on certification quality, pricing, and real student reviews – plus we’ve secured exclusive discounts to help you save.
Home Staging Institute
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Staging Contracts & Templates
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International Access
Staging Studio
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QC Design School
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Staging Diva
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Let’s be real – there are a lot of home staging courses out there. Some are fantastic, others… not so much. So how do you tell the difference?
Here’s what we look for when deciding if a course truly deserves to be called “the best”:
✅ It’s 100% online and flexible – The best courses fit your schedule, not the other way around. Whether you’ve got 20 minutes a day or a whole weekend to binge lessons, you should be able to learn at your own pace, without stress.
✅ You get a certificate that actually means something – A good course doesn’t just give you a digital badge, it gives you a certificate that clients, real estate agents, and staging companies recognize and respect. Bonus points if it comes with the ability to call yourself a “Certified Home Stager”.
✅ It’s packed with practical, real-world advice – We love courses that go beyond the pretty stuff. The best ones include business tips, client checklists, pricing guides, and templates to help you actually start your staging business…not just daydream about it.
✅ It has a solid track record – Look for courses that have been around for a while and have helped thousands of students. If people are singing their praises in reviews (and even coming back for advanced lessons), that’s a great sign.
✅ Lifetime access is the cherry on top – Things change in the home staging world – styles evolve, best practices get updated. Having lifetime access means you can always pop back in and refresh your knowledge when you need it most.
So when we say a course is “the best,” we’re not just talking about looks. We’re talking about the full package – ease, credibility, usefulness, and a reputation you can trust.
🏅Best Home Staging Certification Course
2025 Winner: Home Staging Institute
We highly recommend the Home Staging Institute. The Home Staging Institute ranked #1 in our best home staging courses analysis and has had thousands of happy customers over the past 15 years.
We also have a special offer at Home Staging Institute which can be applied with the button below! 👇
Table of Contents
Top-Rated Home Staging Certification Programs
When reviewing the range of home staging classes available for this analysis, we looked only at online home staging courses.
We did this because our website has an international audience, and listing the top courses in large cities won’t be of any help to 99% of people reading this article.
With that said, let’s take a look at our top 5 online home staging certification courses…
Top Ranked: The Home Staging Institute
The Home Staging Institute is one of the original online home staging courses, established in 2007.
If you were to search for “home staging courses” anytime over the past 13 years, you probably would have seen the Home Staging Institute ranked in the top two or three.
Although it is without a doubt the oldest home staging course, it is also still regularly updated, with new content, resources, and quizzes monthly.
In fact, its last update was just last month.
All of the Home Staging Institute’s courses give you lifetime access and no time limit on when you complete the coursework.
This makes it perfect for both people who want to work on the course full-time for two weeks, and those who want to spread their learning over a few evenings each week for three months.
The Home Staging Institute is one of the original and best home staging certification courses. They also offer a home staging certification upon completion of a simple online exam.
The exam takes from 30 minutes to 1 hour and is completed upon working through all the course modules. You can refer to your notes, and take one retry if needed.
There are four different courses you can choose from depending on your goals and budget:
- Basic Home Staging Course
- Professional Home Staging Course
- Advanced Home Staging Course
- Realtor Home Staging Course
Each staging course explains a home staging concept in a detailed manner and has interactive quizzes throughout to ensure you are absorbing the course material.
All courses come with a 30-day money-back guarantee if you aren’t 100% satisfied.
Second Place: Staging Studio
The Staging Studio presents you with one of the most elegantly designed home staging course websites out of them all.
For some reason, most home staging websites look like they were made in 2005, but the Staging Studio stands out from the crowd with a nice modern website.
This particular home staging course is a mix of video learning, quizzes, group discussions, and downloadable forms.
The video learning is mainly a voice being read over PowerPoint slides. So if you are expecting to be taken along for staging jobs and exploring warehouses, then you might be a little letdown.
You’ll get access to a small community discussion in the form of a comments section below each module, much the same as you might see on a local news website.
This home staging course is broken down into the following modules:
- Module 1 – Design
- Module 2 – Curb Appeal
- Module 3 – Art
- Module 4 – Perceptions
- Module 5 – Branding
- Module 6 – Marketing
- Module 7 – Targeting the Buyer
- Module 8 – Design 2
- Module 9 – Design 3
- Module 10 – Color
- Module 11 – Rooms
- Module 12 – Occupied Staging
- Module 13 – Vacant Staging
- Module 14 – Keys to Success
- Module 15 – Business Quick-Start
- Case Study
There is also a huge number of forms you can download, but to be honest we found them very basic.
As with all best home staging certification courses, at the completion of this course, you’ll earn a certification/badge that you can use on your own website or marketing material. In this case, you’ll earn the accredited designation, Staging Design Professional™ Expert Level.
Third Place: Staging Diva
Staging Diva is one of the original home staging courses. I’ve personally never been through the Staging Diva course before like I have a few others, but from the online reviews I’ve read, it is mainly positive.
There are five home staging courses in the Staging Diva bundle:
- Course 1 Cash in Decorating Homes to Sell
- Course 2 The Business of Home Staging: What You Need to Start & Grow
- Course 3 Taking the Mystery Out of Home Staging Consultations
- Course 4 Sales & Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Staging Business
- Course 5 Over 30 More Ways to Make Money in Home Staging
As you can see, they are heavily focused on the business side of home staging, and not so much on the actual design aspects of the job. So if you’re already a competent interior decorator and are just looking to learn the business of home staging then this home staging course might be good for you.
But if you are looking to learn both the business side of things, along with the design side of things, then this probably isn’t the best home staging course for you to choose.
When you complete the Staging Diva course you get access to a home staging certificate and badge that you can put on your website, social media, and other marketing materials. There isn’t an exam or anything required to earn this, however.
With the Staging Diva, there is one home staging course, but it is available in multiple formats; instant download, instant download PLUS, and mailed-to-your-door where they actually mail the course CDs to you.
The price difference between these courses is $995 for the cheapest and $1295 for the mailed course. But let’s be honest, in 2024 do people really use CDs (most new laptops don’t actually have a CD drive), so with a modern internet connection, you can save yourself a few hundred dollars and just pick the instant download course.
(Note: Many reviews of this course can be a little biased, as the person writing the review often gets a 10% commission from the Staging Diva, so it’s in their best interest to encourage you to buy the course. Our link below doesn’t give us any commission).
Fourth Place: QC Design School
The QC Design School not only offers a home staging course, but also a dozen other courses on similar topics such as Feng Shui design, color consultancy, interior decorating, landscape design, professional organizing, virtual design, and floral design.
The home staging course at the QC Design School is quite expensive at $1904, but they often have specials where you can get a second course for free or half price. If you compare this to the like of the Home Staging Institute which specializes just in home staging courses, it’s about 3 to 4 times the price.
The good news however is that they offer a payment plan which spreads the payments out over 15 months, which makes the monthly price more affordable at a little over $121. But as is often the case, paying monthly means you actually pay about $400 more than if you were to just pay in full.
The course covers all the main aspects of home staging including curb appeal, lighting, decluttering, traffic patterns, color psychology, depersonalizing, and more. Upon completion of this home staging course, you’ll have a good understanding of what it takes to be a professional home stager and do so with confidence.
Fifth Place: Staged4More
Staged4More is one of the newer home staging courses available, and from a quick glance looks like a good online staging course with in-depth community participation.
Cindy Lin, the founder of Staged4More, hasn’t just stopped at creating a simple home staging course. She also manages a home staging podcast, and a home staging directory, runs home staging awards, and organizes home staging events. Yeah…she does it all!
Since we are mainly interested in reviewing the best home staging courses, and not the other aspects of the home staging industry, let’s take a closer look at the Staged4More course specifically.
There are four staging courses available to help you set up your home staging business:
- Home Staging Professional Career Certificate
- 5-Figure Floor Plan
- 6-Figure Floor Plan (Remodeled!)
- Cash in the Cushions
And then there are four additional short courses
- Marketing Presentation
- Home Staging Portfolio Short Course
- Blogging & Newsletter for Home Stagers
- Exposure to Profits
Plus live home staging workshops.
Check out the Staged4More home staging courses at the link below, or get a taste of the content by listening to a few episodes of the podcast for free on Apple.
How to Choose the Right Home Staging Certification Course
What’s the Difference Between a Course, Certificate, and Certification?
If you’ve been Googling home staging education, you’re probably seeing a lot of words thrown around – course, certificate, certification – and wondering… aren’t they all the same thing?
Not quite! Here’s the breakdown:
👉 A “course” is the actual training you take – This is where you’ll learn the ins and outs of home staging — how to stage a room, how to work with clients, how to price your services, and more. Think of it as the content or the classroom.
👉 A “certificate” is what you get at the end of a course – It’s the document that proves you completed the training. Some certificates look more official than others, so it’s worth choosing a course that offers one with real credibility and a professional design.
👉 A “certification” is a little more official-sounding – It usually means the course provider is allowing you to call yourself something like a “Certified Home Stager™” after finishing. This often includes a higher standard of course material and may come with extra recognition in the industry.
Here’s the thing: a great course should give you all three.
That’s one reason we recommend options like the Home Staging Institute, where you get a solid course, a professional certificate, and the ability to market yourself as certified. So when you’re browsing, don’t just look at the price – make sure you’re getting the full package. A course is great. A certificate is even better. But a certification? That’s what gives you real confidence when launching your business.
What to Look for in a Quality Home Staging Course
Not all home staging courses are created equal. Some are packed with real-world value, while others are… well, more like Pinterest with a price tag. If you want to avoid the fluff and choose a course that actually helps you launch a career, here’s what to keep an eye out for:
✅ Clear, easy-to-follow lessons – The best courses are written in plain English (no design degree required!) and walk you through everything step-by-step – from the basics of staging to advanced tips for real homes and real clients.
✅ Business tools included – Look for things like client checklists, pricing templates, contracts, and marketing tips. These are the behind-the-scenes resources that help you actually start your business, not just learn the theory.
✅ Recognition in the industry – It helps to choose a course that’s been around a while and is trusted by real estate agents, home stagers, and past students. Reviews matter. If thousands of people have already used it to kickstart their careers, that’s a big green flag.
✅ Flexible and online – A great course should work around your life. The top ones are fully online, self-paced, and accessible from any device – no commuting or fixed class times required.
✅ Certification and lifetime access – Make sure you’ll walk away with a certificate that looks professional and is easy to share on your website, LinkedIn, or with clients. Lifetime access is another big plus – it means you can revisit lessons anytime your business grows or changes.
One course we’ve consistently seen tick all these boxes? The Home Staging Institute. It’s affordable, comprehensive, and comes with all the practical extras that most beginners really need. If you’re not sure where to start, it’s a safe (and smart) bet.
Other Home Staging Certification Courses
There are quite a few home staging courses out there offering various certifications and credentials. Some sound fancy, some are well-known, and a few… you might never hear of again.
Rather than link to all of them, we’ve listed the most commonly awarded credentials below. If you’re curious, try Googling the acronyms – you’ll often spot which provider offers them.
But a quick heads-up: Some of these providers tend to pop up, run for a few years, and quietly shut down – leaving their graduates with a credential from a school that no longer exists. That’s one of the key reasons we recommend sticking with a course that’s been around for years and built a solid reputation.
Here are some of the common credentials you’ll come across:
CSE – Certified Staging Expert
CDP – Certified Decorating Professional
CHSP – Certified Home Staging Professional
CIR – Certified Interior Redecorator & Resale Ready Staging Expert
CPRES – Certified Professional Real Estate Stager
CSP – Certified Staging Professional
CSRA – Certified Staging & Redesign Academy
CSRA Professional Home Stager – From CSRA
CSS – Certified Staging Specialist
CSST – Certified Successful Stager
While the letters after your name can be a nice bonus, what really matters is choosing a course with credibility, real-world value, and long-term support.
Best Budget-Friendly and Fast-Track Options
If you’re looking to jump into home staging without breaking the bank (or spending six months glued to a screen) good news – there are some great budget-friendly and fast-track options out there.
One of our top picks? The Home Staging Institute.
It’s affordable (often less than half the price of other courses), and it’s designed to get you certified fast – with most students finishing in just a few weeks. Plus, you can go entirely at your own pace. Want to knock it out over a weekend? Go for it. Prefer to chip away slowly in your spare time? That works too.
Despite the low price tag, you’re not missing out on quality. The Home Staging Institute still gives you:
A legit certificate you can add to your resume or website
Templates, checklists, and real tools you’ll actually use
Lifetime access, so you can revisit the material anytime
Other budget-friendly courses exist too, but few offer the same balance of flexibility, professionalism, and practical business guidance that the Home Staging Institute does. If you’re cost-conscious but serious about starting your staging career, it’s an easy recommendation.
What are the benefits of a home staging certification?
There are four benefits to choosing a home staging training course that awards a staging certification:
- Peer recognition – The best home staging courses supercharge your peer recognition and professional development – it shows you have spent time dedicated to educating yourself further in this field, and view home staging as a serious long-term career.
- Increased earnings potential – As with most industries, people who have taken the time to do additional training and earn a certification earn more than non-certified people. An article shared on Associations Now titled “Study: Certifications Lead To Higher Salaries and Greater Job Fulfillment” states the following: “a majority of professionals who completed an online certification course reported bumps in salary and job fulfillment” – And let’s be honest, who doesn’t want a bump in salary and job fulfillment?
- Enhanced marketing – When you’re branding your personal services, or company, it is helpful to be able to show that a trusted third party has reviewed your work and been satisfied enough to give you the stamp of approval. With most home staging certification courses, you’ll get both a certificate and a badge to place on your website and in other marketing material.
- Improve your skills and knowledge – Every course listed on this site will help improve your knowledge – that’s the point! But the best home staging certification courses often takes it a step further, offering structured lessons, real-world scenarios, and business tips that help you launch or grow your staging business with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
To become a certified home stager, you need to take some form of training that leads to an exam or assessment. Upon completion of the exam, you’ll be awarded a certification. There are many providers of both in-person home staging classes, and online home staging courses, that will earn you a certification, and we’ve done our best to review them on this page for you.
Yes, there are plenty of online home staging courses available today. These programs are great if you need a flexible schedule, want to work at your own pace, or live in a location without in-person options. Many are self-paced and allow you to download templates and get certified without stepping into a classroom.
Yes, IAP college is legit and isn’t a scam. We purchased the Interior Decorator Certificate course from IAP college back in 2020, and although it was horrible, we were delivered the PDF as promised.
Yes, there are many places that teach home staging online. Online home staging courses are typically a mix of written content, videos, and online quizzes. Some online home staging courses such as the Home Staging Institute also encourage you to practice home staging in your own home, and submit photos for feedback and critique.
To become an accredited staging professional you need to complete a home staging course that offers a certificate upon completion. Read our reviews of the best home staging certification courses on this page to decide which one is best for you..
The best home staging certification course will depend on your goals, learning style, and budget. Some people prefer in-person classes, while others prefer a flexible online format. Look for a course that covers both the creative and business side of staging. A few options stand out for being affordable, accessible, and packed with value. Check this page to see our top recommendation.
Costs can vary widely. Some certifications cost over $1,000, while others are available for under $300. The difference usually comes down to how much support and business training is included. If you’re on a budget, there are affordable online options that still give you everything you need to start a staging business confidently, such as the top ranked home staging course on this page.
You can enroll in home staging certification classes either online or locally. Local classes are available in most US states, including Florida, Texas, California, and New York. Online certification classes can be found in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
To become a home stager, no, you do not need a home staging accreditation. However earning an accreditation does help you build trust with potential clients, refine your home staging skills, and win more jobs.
Choose a home staging course based on what you personally want to learn. Some courses such as the Staging Diva focus more on the business side of things, whereas other courses such as the Home Staging Insititute are more focused on actually staging a home.
While you might find local home staging workshops or classes in bigger cities, they’re often limited in availability and frequency. That’s why many people now choose to study online. It’s convenient, and you don’t have to wait for the next local class to begin.
To become certified, you’ll need to enroll in a course that offers a certification pathway. Most courses are self-paced, and you’ll learn about design principles, furniture placement, client communication, and business basics. Once completed, you’ll typically receive a certificate to prove your knowledge and training.
Yes, there are courses specifically designed for real estate agents who want to better understand staging. These are helpful if you’re not planning to become a full-time stager but still want to improve how homes are presented in your listings. Some staging programs even include a realtor-specific track, such as the one at the Home Staging Institute.
Canada has a few local options, but most students choose to go with an international online program. These are often more affordable and accessible. As long as the course teaches the fundamentals and provides a certificate you can show clients, you’re on the right track – even if the course isn’t Canada-specific.
Yes, absolutely – but you don’t need to find a local in-person class. Online staging certification courses are available to students in all U.S. states, including California, Florida, and Texas. That means you can study from home on your own schedule and still receive a respected certificate at the end.
Sources
Below are some of the sources we used for this review. We’ll update this page again in 2026 and add any additional sources that we use here.