What's in a name?

Hi Becky,

First of all, I think that because the realtor's wife is an Interior Designer, and they do need to be accredited, she assumes the staging industry is the same.  You do not have to have any formal training to be a bonafide Home Stager - at least not at this point in time.  Will it become necessary in the future? More than likely, but that is then and this is now.

If you are confident in your skills and can build a portfolio, you are on your way.  You also need a website with good Before and After pictures.

Go to Open Houses and introduce yourself to realtors.  Try to get an 'invite' to do a presentation at local real estate offices.  Until you have had a few success stories to share, you may have to give away a few Free Consultations or "Mini-Stagings" of an impact room.

Since the realtor who sold your own house believed in your abilities, try to get her office to work with you.

And Becky, in my opinion. I did train in one of the bigger training programs and I have learned more here on Active Rain than I ever did in any classroom!  Start reading all of the stagers' blogs to learn all that you can about different aspects of the business...you can do this!  Good Luck!

VAL

Hi Becky, for what its worth there really is no such thing as staging accreditation.  Yes we all took courses and got a certificate from someone, but there is no industry standard for staging and thus no "official" accreditation.  I do recommend you take courses from someone out there because you will learn a lot about staging, and also the business end of this gig.  AND you'll get to add XXX Certified to your business card!  Good luck!

Terry Haugen - STAGE it RIGHT!

In the sense that Staged Homes is using the word "accredited," it functionally means the same as certified or approved. The way "accredited" is normally understood is when a university is accredited by an independent body whose job is to set standards to which the university must strive to attain. Universities go through exhaustive processes lasting literally years in order to get this label (usually a laborious process requiring massive amount of work, documentation, and time-at least 6 or more years when originally accredited and then periodic reviews to maintain that accreditation). There is no such independent body that accredits training programs for home staging-nor do I hope there ever is such a body!

So Staged Homes must be using the word rather loosely and as the equivalent of "certified." I will not assume that they are trying to appear that they are anything like an accredited University. Admittedly, it does add some confusion to this whole issue. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I will hold out that they had no intention of misrepresenting them selves as an institute of higher learning as clearly, a three day class or even a week long class in no way is the equivalent of an accredited University degree. Now in fairness to Staged Homes, I will readily admit I have no idea what their motive are for using the term "accredited" so perhaps they simply mean it in the sense of approved by Barbara Schwartz or Staged Homes, or certified. Most training groups that I am familiar with use the word certified. For example, I once took a three day course in hypnosis and thus became "certified" by that group. My degree from an "accredited university" took considerably longer.