Home Staging Courses
 
 

  Home Staging Courses

         What You Can Expect
  
  by Janet Parker

Home Staging Courses - an introduction

Home Staging Courses - WOW!  These courses barley existed 3 years ago and now they seem to be one of the hottest topics around but before we go into the specifics of what you can expect with the different home staging courses, I'd like to tell Janet Parker you a little about how I got involved in Home Staging and how this whole field of activity has really exploded. Hopefully I can help you avoid some of the mistakes that I made in the process of getting started.

I have been selling real estate for almost 20 years and still do; almost all residential properties. However, about 4 years ago the market started getting tighter and my sales and commissions started coming farther and farther apart. I am a single mother of three boys and it was becoming increasingly difficult to pay our bills and keep a roof over our heads. 

Everything started to change for me when one day we had a speaker at our regular weekly sales meeting that spoke on the topic of how our houses would sell faster and at better prices if they just looked better -- DUH! I know that sounds ridiculously simple but it really wasn't a concept that most of us dealt with back in the hot days of residential real estate when it was just: get a listing - show the house - sell the house.

The speaker went on to explain how she did this type of pre-sale presentation work (don't believe the term "home Staging" was ever used) for a flat fee of only $450 which indeed seemed like a bargain to help sell a house that might generate a $5000 - $10,000 commission to me and more quickly put a couple hundred thousand dollars in the home sellers hands.

We were also told about a training course she offered to realtors to teach us this business of preparing homes for sale so that we could sell this service to our clients and listings. This looked like a win-win to me as I could pick up some nice $450 fees on the front end and then have a house that would sell faster putting that commission in my account sooner as a huge bonus.

The training course was a joke! It cost me $850 which I definitely could not afford at that time and taught us little more than how to pick up the clutter, turn on some lights and move some furniture around. It did not include any of the forms or paperwork that I soon learned were necessary or any information at all on how to market this service outside of our own real estate listings.

     Before Home Staging
    
After Home Staging
 

Home Staging Training Courses have come a long ways since then as the industry has grown so much in the recent past. The home foreclosure situation has really fueled this growth as more and more homes are being turned back over to the lenders that are stuck with a growing inventory of empty, trashed-out homes they need to sell. (and these homes really NEED to be made to look better to get any decent offers)

There is no question that in today's market there is a huge and growing demand for this service that is making $500 a day or more for many of us that also get the satisfaction of knowing we are truly helping people to sell their homes faster and for better prices.

Some of the Home Staging Courses offer "Certification" as part of their training program. I do have my certification from one of the many organizations that offer them but have found that it is in no way necessary or even particularly helpful in running my Home Staging business. This is especially true as there is no one single organization that regulates or controls the Home Staging profession so that you end up with a number of different groups that each offer their own version of "Certification"; HSE, IASHP, ASP and the list goes on. My recommendation is not to be influenced to spend a lot of extra money for "Certification" if it is offered as an option with the training course you choose as it is definitely not needed.

There are probably 100's of Home Staging Courses available now but here is a summary of 3 that I have had experience with:

Home Staging Resource

A very complete course that includes all of the needed forms as well as an optional marketing module to help you market your services. Their own Certification is included.

Probably the best of the Home Staging Courses if you have the budget to invest this kind of money to get started. However, unless you do have an unlimited budget, you do not need to start at this level.

Cost: $945 for Basic Home Staging Course + $495 for Marketing Solutions module

Visit their website Here for more information

Home Staging Experts

One of my friends took this Home Staging Course and liked it although she had to come to me for some extra help with the forms she needed and advice on how to market her services. The course did seem to offer quite a bit of good information on what is needed to properly prepare a home for sale and includes more instruction on the techniques and philosophies of interior decorating than most other courses.

Cost: $299.00 for home study course and $99 a year registration fee

Visit their website Here for more information.

Home Staging Training Group

This is an excellent "getting started" home staging course. It does not go into all of the detail on the mechanics of Interior Decorating as some of the more expensive courses but does cover all of the information a person needs to do a proper job of home staging and does include a complete portfolio of needed forms as well as very good advice on how to market your business with a minimum of personal effort.

You may want to consider one of the more in-depth home staging courses at a later date, after you have some profits coming in but I have two friends that are running very nice Home Staging businesses with only this training.

Cost: $47.00 home study course and comes with an almost unheard of Money Back Guarantee

Visit their website Here for more information.

(Honestly, this is the one that I recommend to my friends that want to "get their feet wet" and try out the business to see if its for them without spending a bunch of money)

I hope you have found this information on Home Staging Courses helpful and hope you will visit my Blog for more information on this exciting profession.

Wishing you the best,

   Janet
 

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What to Look for in a Home Staging Course

Many people who think they lack or need business skills to run a Home Staging business enroll in Home Staging classes. However, with so many home staging training courses on the Internet alone, many students get confused and end up investing in a low quality training provider. After the program is over, they realize that they still don’t know how to start a Home Staging business. The key here is to know what to look for in a Home Staging course before even pulling out your credit card.

Home Staging is for a fact an unregulated field where anyone can claim to offer quality training. If you are a prospective student you need to do your own research before you even plunge into one of the many Home Staging training classes. The following details are what you need to consider before committing to anything:

The Teacher
Someone with actual experience working as a professional Home Stager will be the best teacher for a Home Staging class. If the teacher has his or her own Home Staging business, then that is a plus. Just imagine someone who does not have any experience on the field teaching you how to start a business and make it profitable. How will they teach something they have not experienced firsthand?

Home Staging Credentials
There is really no such thing as a Home Staging credential so you don’t have to look for one. As mentioned earlier, the business is not regulated whatsoever and it seems likr almost every Home Staging Training Group has their own "certification". Some Home Staging Companies may let you use their company name as a reference but this will not really matter especially if the institute is not well recognized by the public anyway. If someone charges you a licensing fee or for any form of so called “credentials”, don’t fall for their trap.

What Others Say - Are there any testimonials?
This is where your research can help you. Spend a lot of time to read what other people say about the training program. Most likely, if you go to forums about Home Staging you will find reviews and testimonies from former graduates of Home Staging training courses. The Internet is a useful tool you can take advantage of.

What Happens After the Course
What happens after you paid for the Home Staging course, complete the program, and graduate? It will be scary if after the classes you are left on your own. It will be better if ongoing support is available until you manage to run the business yourself. I can not stress how important this is as I can guarantee you that you will have questions and challanges in the future and most Home Staging Courses don't offer any ongoing support.

Home Staging Training

There are really two options to getting your home staging training and we have only been discussing Home Staging Courses and Home Staging Classes. The other option is to get a job working with a Professional Home Stager where you will basically be an apprentice and get the benefit of "on the job training". This might be a good choice for you if finances are tight making it difficult to afford one of the established Home Staging Courses. The main drawback to this approach is that you may find that most of your assignments will focus on the practical decorating aspects of Home Staging with very little exposure to the very important elements of how to promote and market a successful Home Staging Business.

Home Staging Certification

I know I have already discussed this earlier but this issue of Home Staging Certification continues to be one of the areas that generates the most questions. As I have said, I do have a certification but do not think it is at all necessary to running a successful Home Staging Business. The main reason being that there is no central organization for certification as many Home Staging Courses offer their own certification which is really nothing more than proof of course completion.

Now, if you are sure that the Home Staging program being offered meets all the requirements you need, it’s time to head start your business with proper training and quality Home Staging course and if you are still wondering if this is the right industry or career choice then consider these additional facts:

Proven Home Staging Benefits:

  1. Higher Asking Price: Statistically, homes that have been staged command higher asking prices than non-staged homes, because the house is in top showing condition.
  2. Faster Sale Time: Statistically, staged houses sell in one-third time than non-staged houses
  3. Greater Rate of Return: Statistically, the investment in staging is more than returned to the homeowner when their house sells through getting a better price.   

HOME STAGING STATISTICS:

Staged homes sell quicker than non-staged houses...

  • Nationwide, a staged home is on the market for an average of 31.9 days
  • Nationwide, a non-staged home is on the market around 160 days
  • 93% of professionally staged homes sell within one month
  • This could mean the difference between days and months!

Staging is a win-win situation. The sellers win because their houses are sold in a shorter amount of time compared to a non-staged homes, and the real estate agents win because their listings sell faster than agents who don't recommend staging. Results do not lie. Story after story has been told of how staging made the difference in the sale of a home.

Home Staging Training:

A home is the largest investment will probably make make during their lives. In these times of economic struggle, selling your home in a hurry for top dollar is getting very hard to do. Your home must be in tip-top shape to stand apart while holding the buyer's interest so they can imagine themselves living there and this is where home staging comes in.

Any material on home staging training should include information on the best use of color in a home staging project. The colors that you use when staging your home will have an effect on your buyers on both a conscious and unconscious level. It is not important to stay in bland what most think of as white, cream, or beige color range.
 
Also remove all your favourite items from every room in the house that you atr staging and you want to keep. whether you are selling a home that appeals to stylish families or bare bones bachelors, professionals in the world of staging homes know through training what the market wants. Home staging is all about appealing to a particular sort of person and there are some styles that appeal to wider audiences than others. You may believe that your present likes and preferences is shared by many but the truth remains that not every self-proclaimed fasion expert knows what everyone likes. Professionals in the art and science of staging a home spend their lifetimes knowing what people need in a home, and it is this information that you should take from your home staging training.
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