Home Staging
Training Certification

You may be surprised to learn that you don't need training certification to become a professional home stager. Home staging is not a professional that requires state licensing or certified training.

However, there are circumstances when you might want to get certified in home staging.

First, let's examine what certification actually means. Certification means that a certain group has set a standard and that group provides a screening mechanism to identify all those that meet the standard. The group can be a bridge club in Anywhere, USA that certifies that 50 people in that town can play bridge.

In the case of home staging, usually certification comes from a for-profit company that is selling training programs. They will certify that you have completed their program and maybe that you scored a passing grade on the training exams. Since all staging training is not standardized by any recognized professional board, the training and certification vary by company.

You might want to know if, in fact, you need certification. There are two cases in which it might be helpful but it is absolutely "not necessary". The first case is when you would be at a competitive disadvantage against other stagers "in town" that have certification of one type or another. You know what certification means, but to a consumer, it sounds official and professional. If you are the only game in town, then you might not need certification and the extra expenses that go along with it.

The second case is to give you credibility. Some people just want to see the diploma on the wall to know that they are getting their money's worth.

If your governing body (state, province, municipality, etc.) ever gets around to licensing stagers, then you might need to be certified. At that point, they will probably want to see some evidence of education or training, passing scores on a standardized exam, or experience in the field. Until then, certification is totally up to you.

Return to Staging Training from Training Certification.