Unlike interior designers -- who work with clients to acquire new furniture and accessories -- home stagers primarily use existing furnishings their clients already own.

Some stagers charge for their time and make anywhere from $75 to $125 per hour. Others are paid per project, with rates ranging from $150 up to $350 to revamp a single room or several rooms.

Dixon, 58, switched to her new career after working 16 years in the mortgage business and as a part-time Realtor."The beauty of this job is that it can be done full time, part time or added to an existing career." "I wanted something new, so I started looking around the Internet when I found out about staging," she says. "I had been setting the scene for potential buyers before, not knowing there was a word for it."

In addition to staging homes, Dixon founded Interior Arrangements, a staging training school that teaches students tricks of the staging trade and ways to grow their businesses. It resembles other programs with intensive workshops that last three to five days and generally cost about $3,000.

Ruthanne Hatfield is a Napa Valley, Calif.-based home stager who has redesigned rooms for HGTV's show "Decorating Cents." Her training program, Art of Interior Placement, attracts individuals who want to take weeklong workshops as well as those interested in her $30 two-hour seminars.

"We get a lot of people from corporate America, banking, nursing -- it runs the gamut," Hatfield says.

To find out more about Staging Careers, logon to IRIS' website: http://weredesign.com , or contact them at their Chicago headquarters(8 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 1000, Chicago, IL 60603) 312-782-4951 or toll free at 866-388-5208- IRIS is the international authority on interior redesign and real estate staging