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The 5 Best Home Staging Courses Revealed

Home » The 5 Best Home Staging Courses Revealed

By: Violet Woolley
Last Updated: 6th December 2023

We’re passionate about home staging, but know that finding the best home staging course can be a bit of a headache.

You need to look at pricing, understand which courses provide a home staging certification, and also decide if you want to take your home staging course online, or in person.

Read our guide below to help decide which is the best home staging course for you.

Note: This analysis is split into two distinct sections.

The first looks at the best home staging courses, regardless of whether they offer a home staging certification.

The second section looks at the best home staging certification courses, for those readers who specifically want to earn a certification upon the completion of the course.

We have a special offer for you on one of the top-rated home staging courses. Click below to view the limited-time offer (ends soon). 👇

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“⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best Home Staging Course of 2023“

Table Of Contents
  1. Five Best Home Staging Courses
    • 1. The Home Staging Institute
    • 2. Staging Studio
    • 3. Staging Diva
    • 4. QC Design School
    • 5. Staged4More
  2. Best Home Staging Certification Courses
    • 1. The Home Staging Institute
    • Other Staging Certification Courses:
  3. What are the benefits of a home staging certification?
    • Peer recognition
    • Increased earnings potential
    • Enhanced marketing
    • Improve your skills and knowledge
  4. Extra Home Staging Course Reviews
  5. Frequently Asked Questions
  6. Sources

Five Best Home Staging Courses

When reviewing the range of home staging classes available for this analysis, we looking only at online home staging classes.

We did this because this website has an international audience, and listing the top courses in large cities won’t help 99% of people reading this article.

With that said, let’s take a look at our top 5 online home staging courses…

best home staging course

1. 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 that want to spread their learning over a few evenings a week for 3 months.

The Home Staging Institute is one of the original and best home staging certification courses. They 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.

Visit The Home Staging Institute
staging studio home staging course

2. Staging Studio

The Staging Studio presents you with one of the more elegantly designed home staging course websites out of them all. For some reason, most 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 discussion, 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.

Visit Staging Studio
staging diva course

3. 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 2023 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).

Visit Staging Diva
qc design school home staging course

4. 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.

Visit QC Design School
staged4more home staging course

5. 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.

Visit Staged 4 More

Best Home Staging Certification Courses

If you are looking for a home staging certification, then you need to choose a staging course that has some form of exam, upon which you are awarded a certification upon successful completion.

We’ve listed above 5 of the best home staging courses in general, but if you want a home staging certification, then you’ll need to consider the courses below.

1. The Home Staging Institute

best home staging course

It’s no surprise that our top pick for the best home staging course section above is also our top pick for the best home staging certification course.

The Home Staging Institute has been around for over 13 years, but is updated monthly.

They are one of the original courses to offer a certification online and have glowing videos and written testimonials on their website.

Other Staging Certification Courses:

There are a dozen other courses that provide a home staging certification, and various staging credentials to go along with them.

We won’t list or link to all the websites here, but take a look at the below home staging credentials on Google and you might see who the provider is.

Note: Some of the providers pop up and last a few years before closing down, so some providers who awarded the credentials below won’t be able to be found on Google anymore. This is one of the main reasons to choose a well known course that has stood the test of time!

  • CSE – Certified Staging Expert
  • CDP – Certified Decorating Professionals
  • 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 – Certified Staging & Redesign Academy
  • CSS – Certified Staging Specialist
  • CSST – Certified Successful Stager

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 new study found that a majority of professionals who completed an online certification course reported bumps in salary and job fulfillment

https://associationsnow.com/

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

To be fair, all the home staging training courses listed on this page will improve your skills and knowledge in the staging industry – that is the entire point of signing up for a class.

Extra Home Staging Course Reviews

  • Staging Studio
  • Home Staging Institute
  • Staging Diva
  • Institute of Home Staging
  • School of Home Staging
  • IAP College
  • QC Design School
  • Home Staging Resource

Frequently Asked Questions

How to become a certified home stager

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.

Is IAP College legit?

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.

Can I learn home staging online?

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.

How do I become an accredited staging professional?

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..

Which is the best home staging certification course?

We’ve reviewed a few home staging certification courses above and encourage you to read our full reviews to decide which is the best home staging certification course for you. Depending on your budget, and time availability, what might be the best course for someone else may not be the best course for you.

What does home staging certification cost?

Home staging certification course costs range from $249 at the Home Staging Institute, to over $2,000 at other schools.

Where can I take staging certification classes?

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.

Do I need a home staging accreditation?

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.

How do you choose a home staging course?

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.

Sources

Below are some of the sources we used for this review in 2023. We’ll update this page in 2024 and add any additional sources that we use here.

OpportunityChecker.com
School of Home Staging
Indeed
Houzz

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Course Vouchers

Each year we request an exclusive offer from a number of home staging courses and share them with our subscribers.

Top Staging Course

In our Best Home Staging Courses analysis, we picked the Home Staging Institute as the best home staging course of 2022.

More Home Staging Course Reviews

Staging Studio
Home Staging Institute
Staging Diva
Institute of Home Staging
QC Design School
Home Staging Resource

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There are many home staging courses to choose from these days, so we've answered all your top questions.

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Albany, New York

Courses Reviewed

Staging Studio
Home Staging Institute
Staging Diva
Institute of Home Staging
School of Home Staging
IAP College
QC Design School
Home Staging Resource

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