Welcome to the dynamic world of staging homes! You’re reading this blog because you are probably curious about home staging employment opportunities, or you want to start as an independent home stage contractor. Well, you found a good starting point.
In this post, we’ll define what home stagers do and what you need to kickstart a career in this industry. Keep reading to see what goes into stager jobs and what you can expect!
What Does a Home Stager Do?
Home stagers are people or companies who turn ordinary properties into ones that sell fast by decorating or staging the space to highlight its features and appeal to potential buyers.
While this profession is primarily for the real estate industry, home stager jobs can be found in interior design firms, home building companies, and furniture stores alike. Define the market you want to enter to choose a niche.
Before anything else, we recommend that you do research on various home staging niches. Looking at things that you are passionate about and the ones that are in demand can give you a view of what it will be like when you enter the industry. This allows you to explore different areas and will help you choose the best path for you.
What You Should Know About a Home Staging Career
Becoming a home stager can involve many considerations. It is a lucrative industry, and the truth is, there are no shortcuts to entering it.
Some are clouded by the fact that it makes money quickly. But really, the part that is often overlooked is the most important one – hard work. In this section, we’ll walk you through the essential things you should consider before deciding to enter the home staging industry.
Passion is not enough.
Unfortunately, even if you’re driven with so much passion, it’s not enough to be a stronghold in home staging. It’s incredibly easy to be a home stager nowadays and believe me, these people all have passion and talent. However, with saturation, home stager jobs tend to be filled in fast. Even with easy entry, it cannot guarantee that you will be successful in the long run.
Effort can make or break your career.
In the competitive market of home staging, it is tantamount to putting out the effort that stands out. With a lot of other home stagers out there, the extra effort you put in will eventually become noticeable and will pay you off long-term.
Home staging is not always in season.
If you’re opening up a home staging business, you have to know that there are on and off seasons. Creating a financial plan will help you get through the off-season even with zero home staging projects. This can be extra challenging if you have employees that you have to pay. We recommend using the off-season to do administrative work you might be overlooking when you’re doing staging projects. Invoicing, marketing, and connecting with clients are a few areas to work on during this time.
You don’t always get to stage homes.
If you think home staging careers are only about home staging per se, it isn’t. Yes, you do get to stage and transform homes and spaces, but it’s not going to be your everyday schedule. There are days you have to do paperwork, create proposals, and do research. So, it’s best to hone your business skills apart from your creativity.
You have to learn sales and marketing.
Home staging is a people industry. Your job as a stager is basically to help sell spaces. Connecting with clients, not only online but in person, is very important. You have to be comfortable with understanding people, their needs and expectations, and their goals to align with the work you’ll do with them.
It’s also a standard to have good marketing and an online presence. Introverted people can find this aspect challenging, but there are ways to get around it, like staging jobs that don’t require that much interpersonal interaction.
Work should deliver results.
For a home stager to be considered successful in their work, their output should deliver results. These results can be translated from client or employer satisfaction, good feedback, and successful property closings.
Build and keep a good reputation.
As we said earlier, the market can be saturated with home stagers. A good reputation gives you a better chance in the industry. Integrity and honesty are two key traits of a successful home stager. You should be aware of people who may think of cheating their portfolios by copying your work. It’s not very rare to see cheating stagers just to get a contract in.
Home Stager Requirements
Aspiring home stagers like you are looking for answers on this, and so we give it to you. All you need to start to build a house stager career.
Get Certified
Most home staging jobs require formal education in staging, so you must get formal training and certification above anything else. A certificate helps home staging companies’ hiring managers, and clients see you as a viable candidate for the job. Different courses are offered in this space; choose one that is appropriate for your desired niche.
Build Your Network
Creating and building professional relationships is what networking is about. It can help you increase your professional confidence and introduce you to people on different levels in the same space. Knowing other home stagers in the industry can help you learn new strategies and techniques and find better jobs in staging.
Work as an Intern
Internships offer you not only experience but vital training and opportunities as well. Working for established home stagers will help you get substantial professional experience that you can include in your portfolio and reference. This can be your foothold to further educate yourself after getting a certification. You can check companies that offer internships and send out applications or ask your network for possible referrals. The latter choice is much more convenient and gives you a head start to getting chosen.
Get a Staging Mentor
You’re a newbie who needs mentoring – yes, you are. And there are a lot of other experienced home stagers that can be your mentor. Getting a mentor means you get invaluable tips you can’t get elsewhere and some critical feedback you need to work on. A mentor can also help you create your first home staging portfolio or resume. Most of all, they can be references to job opportunities. Your marketing and networking skills should come in here.
Get in contact with established professionals in the industry and ask if they can be your mentor – no harm in trying! Be sure you’re teachable and committed before deciding to be a mentee.
Start Building Your Portfolio
Biggest tip: do not steal other people’s work; create your portfolio which you will be proud of in the future. Document every project you do especially the before and after photos. Create a website where you can put them or a social media account that also lets you interact with audiences and possible potential clients.
If you don’t have any projects yet, you can try to do these:
- Do volunteer work for charities or organizations that need help in staging.
- Engage in interior design for family and friends.
- Arrange or stage your own home.
- Offer home staging services to real estate agents or companies.
Essential Skills of a Home Stager
You might be wondering what skills a successful home stager possesses. Skills are important in whatever career path you choose and, therefore, can help you decide if you fit in the industry or not. Do you think you have what it takes to become a stager?
Here’s a list of useful skills a home stager should have:
- Talent – let’s face it, creativity is a talent not everyone possesses. Training can help hone your talent but it can never be a replacement for innate talent especially for designing that involves certain levels of creativity like staging homes as a career.
- Understanding of real estate – working with spaces mainly with the intention to sell means you have to understand the ins and outs of real estate.
- Intuition – using your instincts is incomparable in understanding how best to decorate a space.
- Attention to detail and organization – as a home stager, you should have thorough concern in every project area no matter how small the details are. Organizational skills are also needed especially at times you encounter chaotic environments.
- Can work under pressure – some projects have quick turnaround times, and most projects don’t go as smoothly as you anticipate. This work pressure surely brings in stress! But you have to stay calm and process this to be able to make quick decisions.
Starting your Home Staging Career
Regardless of how you want to start – building your own business or working with or for home staging companies – you have to clearly define your niche.
Left and right, you will see job opportunities. Staging companies are hiring on and off-season so take advantage of it while you can.
Follow us for reference and home staging services. Holme Stage, the leader in home staging Los in Angeles.
