Is Now a Good Time to Become a Home Stager?

Jul 02, 2021

Starting a home staging business is truly a dream job if you love to decorate and hate the idea of a desk job. But, before jumping in, you might be asking yourself whether now is the right time to start a staging business.

In this blog, we are sharing about the state of the home staging industry, how much home stagers make, and how the hot real estate market impacts staging. Of course, you have to decide for yourself if you are ready to start your home staging business, but the answer is YES!! It is a GREAT time to become a home stager.

Is Home Staging a Stable Career?

We started our home staging company during the Housing Crisis of 2008. Everyone told us we were crazy! The real estate market plummeted – how would we ever make it as home stagers?

The fact is, staging professionals succeed in bad housing markets and hot housing markets, like we are experiencing right now. In a buyer’s market, staging is necessary to sell homes faster. When there are so many homes for sale, real estate agents need staging to help their listings stand out.

In today’s seller’s market, homes sell quickly, but staging is still needed in order to get top dollar. The return-on-investment for home staging is over 400%, according to Real Estate Staging Association (RESA). Without staging, home sellers leave money on the table.

That’s how we built a multimillion dollar home staging business, despite the recession and ups and downs since then. Many staging businesses remained stable during the pandemic, too. The average home stager completed 29 vacant stages in 2020, according to RESA’s latest State of the Industry Report, in line with the average of 30 vacant stages in 2019.

How Did COVID-19 Impact Home Staging?

While no one was exempt from the tragic effects of the pandemic, RESA’s State of the Industry Report shows that the majority of home staging businesses were successful despite the challenges.

As of February 2021, the majority of home stagers were working at about 75% of normal or higher. Some reported that they are already working more than they were before the pandemic began!

Stagers also demonstrate time and again their ability to recover from setbacks. If COVID-19 were to end today, many RESA stagers estimate that they would bounce back in less than a month.

A graph showing how many days it would take home stagers to operate back at pre-covid business activity

Graph Source: Real Estate Staging Association®

How Is the Staging Industry Changing?

Due to COVID-19, home stagers adapted their services to fit the new needs of clients.

In-person (aka “walk-and-talk”) occupied consultations dropped from 2019 to 2020, since fewer people were meeting in-person. But the number of written occupied consultations increased as stagers found new ways to provide the same services, according to the State of the Industry Report.

Not only can you offer traditional staging in new and creative ways, but you can diversify your business with additional design services. While vacant and occupied staging remain the most popular services offered by certified home stagers, color consultations, redesign, and Airbnb design are popular as well, according to the report.

picture of a living room couch with a soft pink throw over it

Another way the staging industry is changing is that there are way more resources for home stagers now. 14 years ago, when we first started our business, there was very little information available to help us.

That is one of the reasons we created our training program at Staging Studio. We wanted all home stagers to be successful and to avoid the mistakes we made along the way! Staging Studio is here to be your guide over your entire staging business journey. Our home staging courses give you everything you need to go from A to Z!

How Can I Make Sure I’m Successful as a Home Stager?

If you decide that now is a good time for you to become a home stager, you will be in great company. RESA data shows that just as many people started their home staging business this past year, during the pandemic, as they did the year prior! That is just another testament to the resiliency of the home staging industry.

But here is the honest truth. Not everyone is going to be successful. Many stagers are hobbyists, who lack the training and knowledge to build a profitable business. They’re having fun, but they aren’t bringing in a living wage, or real results for their clients.

Get the Blueprint to Starting Your Home Staging Business to help you in setting up your business as a Staging Design Professional®. This course will guide you through the steps for jumping into the staging industry – and landing on your feet – as a true professional.