Posted by Stephanie Martin in Real Estate Agent Resources

Updated November 2022

Don’t let selling your old home hold you back from settling into your new M/I Home! If you want to sell your home quickly and for top dollar, staging is a great start.

What Is Staging a Home?

Staging is the process of presenting your home in the most appealing way to the market. Allowing families to visualize how they would live and how their furniture would fit into your home will make it more appealing!

Staged Home Office

Staging Tips for Selling Your Home

The staging process doesn’t have to be difficult or costly. Here are our top 5 home staging tips and tricks.

1. Draw Attention to Wide Open Spaces

De-clutter, de-clutter, de-clutter—we can’t say it enough! If you haven’t already moved into your new M/I Home, remove the knickknacks and junk to prioritize simplicity and make your current home look neat.

Rearrange furniture to make rooms appear larger and more inviting. If some pieces of furniture look worn, keep them in storage while staging your home to sell.

Organize bookshelves, coffee tables, desks, and more in order to clear up surfaces.

Staged Loft

2. Fill Your Home With Fresh Aromas

Make sure your home not only looks inviting, but smells pleasant as well! Having a place that smells like fresh baked cookies, pie, cake or other sweet dessert can really make a house feel like a home.

Be conscious of cooking or pet odors that may linger. Open your windows to allow for air circulation and add fresh flowers for that extra touch.

Staged Kitchen and Dining Area

3. Maximize Natural Lighting During Open Houses

Good lighting makes homes look warm and inviting. Think about adding extra lamps to dark corners as well as replacing old bulbs.

Keep curtains and blinds open during the day to bring in as much natural light as possible.

Neutral colors on walls help a room look bigger and brighter; try light beige, as white walls can look a bit sterile.

You can even light the fireplace on a dreary day to brighten up a room.

Staged Living Room With Fireplace On

4. Keep It Simple

  • Don’t overcrowd living spaces with too much furniture
  • Put away kitchen appliances that take up counter space
  • Make sure your closets are tidy and clean
  • Don’t over-decorate with too many pillows, blankets, and rugs

Remember: you’re trying to sell the house, not the stuff inside it!

Staged Bedroom

5. Focus on the Details

Once you’ve completed the big changes to your home, concentrate on the little things that may have slipped through the cracks.

Replace broken bathroom tiles, check wall corners and edges for dings, make sure wallpaper isn’t torn, and check for dust.

Most importantly, spend the majority of your time cleaning! A clean home will always be more appealing than a dirty one.

Staged Dining Room

Try to depersonalize your home so that buyers can picture themselves living there.

Finally, spruce up the front of your house with plants and flowers—you want to make the best first impression possible!

Staged Home Exterior

These 5 tips are a great way to stage your home for sale. Whether your house has been on the market for awhile, or you’re still living there, staging a home is a great way to entice buyers, and you can still stage your home if you’ve already moved into your new M/I Home!



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Stephanie Martin

Author

Stephanie Martin is the Design Studio Manager for our Sarasota Division. She recently relocated from Myrtle Beach, SC, bringing her 20+ years design experience working for the largest homebuilders in the area. Over the years, Stephanie has helped over 5,000 customers create their dream home, providing the ultimate customer experience. Stephanie enjoys spending her free time outdoors, preferably on the beach, and planning getaways with her family.

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