By: Violet Woolley
Last Updated: 2nd June 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.
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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…
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
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
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.