Staging Tips for Selling Your Home

Home Blog Staging Tips for Selling Your Home

Posted On: April 12, 2022 by Peoples Bank of Kankakee County in: Family Home Mortgages

Staging your home can be a hectic task on your plate. Here are a few tips on how you can stage your home easily and on a budget.

Make a Good First Impression

Good curb appeal will stand out to your buyers immediately. Attractive landscaping and outside projects can take time. If you’re in a hurry to get your exterior looking its best, the first thing to focus on would be removing dirt from the siding, roof, and gutters. A good pressure washer can clean the dirt right off. While you’re at it, you can pressure wash your porch and walkways. If you have outdoor furniture, sometimes a good pressure washer can make them look refreshed and new as well.

Another curb appeal tip is to have clean lawn edges. Edging around any tree or flowerbed will improve their appearance. Once your edging is sharply complete, consider laying some additional mulch or rock to give it a fuller look. Be sure to fill in empty planting beds or pots with colorful flowers or greenery.

Cook Up a Good-Looking Kitchen

The key to quickly staging your home on a budget is to limit your projects. Let’s talk “clutter.” Clutter takes up space and space is what sells. A kitchen can look much more attractive if the small appliances are put away and anything hanging on the fridge is removed. The more you can get off the counter, the better. You will want to clean your home like you have never cleaned before. Clean the places you have avoided like inside the refrigerator, under the sink or those dusty window blinds. A squeaky-clean home suggests to the buyer that you took excellent care of the property, a notion that goes beyond the kitchen counter to the entire house. Changing the hardware on your cabinets can also improve presentation. When staging your kitchen, consider it a refreshed facelift, not a completely new look.

Functional Furniture Placement

Furniture placement is a huge factor in how buyers view the home and the overall space. You may have to remove some furniture to give a more open, walkable space. Get rid of any damaged or mismatched pieces. Minimal accessories on your coffee table can give a clean, sleek look. A few throw pillows are always an easy addition to spruce up what you already have, just be sure they flow with the furniture and match. Adding a lamp in a darker corner to add brightness can help add to the space as well. If you have wall hangings, make sure they are appropriately sized and they are straight.

Accessorize With Accents

When it comes to accessorizing your home, the key takeaways are to go neutral, de-personalize, and declutter. Potential buyers want to envision themselves in your home, so depersonalizing your décor can best allow them to do that. This may entail removing family photos, religious items, awards, or personal items like toothbrushes. As for replacing personal items, add some neutral pots with greenery, books or even some inexpensive accents such as candles, bookends, or decorative beads. The more minimal your counters, shelves and tables can be, the more refreshed they will look to your buyer. The rule of thumb is to decorate in threes rather than in a pair to look relaxed and asymmetrical.

Sell With the Smell

Everyone wants to walk into a good-smelling house. Oftentimes aromas can affect the way your buyers feel and think as they walk through your home. It can be hard for us to notice what may come off as an odor in our house to someone else. Remove the dog bed or kitty litter well in advance to diminish the smell of a pet. Put your overflow of shoes away. Add a small plug-in air freshener to give off a pleasant, subtle scent. Be sure to always empty the trash bin before showings so buyers are not hit with any offensive odors. Some sellers even go so far as making cookies before a showing for an aroma of freshly baked cookies. Throughout the rest of your house, you can place a few healthy, well placed plants and flowers to add freshness and life to the space.

Some Extras to Add

1. Home Office

Adding an office is always smart, especially in the world we live in with a lot of people having the option to work remotely. If you have the furniture and could set up a room for an office, it would be a great way to show diversity amongst rooms. If you do not have a full room, renovate a nook to work as a functional office.

2. Organizational Units for Closets

Another extra to add would be some budget-friendly storage options to tidy up closets and accentuate the storage you have in a more luxurious way. We all desire storage, so the key is to show it off.

3. Plush Bathrooms

Consider adding a clean shower curtain and plush towels and rugs to your bathrooms to create a spa feeling. While you are touching up your bathrooms, be sure to address any hard water stains and dirty grout.

4. Luxe Bedrooms

Lastly, make your bedrooms feel luxurious with plush pillows and fluffy comforters. Everyone wants a comfortable bedroom they can unwind in. Give this feeling to potential buyers by tidying up yours for a simple, yet luxe look so they can envision making it their own.

What You NEED to Remove

1. Remove Your Pet

Always remove any pets before a showing. We like to think we all have a sweet spot for a furry friend, but when showing your home, buyers do not want to be greeted by your pet. Remember that buyers may be allergic, not like pets, or find their odor to be a turn off.

2. Remove Pet Items

As mentioned above, removing your pets would also include their extra necessities such as a crate, food bowls and toys. You want it to look like they do not reside with you. The last thing you want your potential buyers to notice is dog hair all over and a pet odor in their potentially new home.

3. Remove Clutter and Personal Items

Staging your home can be the extra push you need to get your home sold. Cleaning up the clutter and the personal items can allow potential buyers to envision the space as their own. Sometimes you can even work a deal with a buyer and sell some of your existing furniture, solely because it fits the space so perfectly. The great part about staging your home is that it forces you to start packing up and declutter your things before the big move.

Now that you’ve read all about the tips to stage your home, start decluttering and depersonalizing today to sell with confidence!

An overdraft occurs when you do not have enough money in your account to cover a transaction, but we pay it anyway. We can cover your overdrafts in two different ways:

We have standard overdraft practices that are available after your account has been open for 30 days and as long as you maintain your account in good standing.
We also offer an overdraft protection plan, Overdraft Protection Sweep, a link to a savings account. It may be less expensive than our standard overdraft practices. To learn more, ask us about this plan.

This notice explains our standard overdraft practices.

What are the standard overdraft practices that come with my account?

After your account has been open for 30 days and as long as you maintain your account in good standing, we do authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions:

Checks and other transactions made using your checking account number
Automatic bill payments

We do not authorize and pay overdrafts for the following types of transactions unless you ask us to (see below):

ATM transactions
Everyday debit card transactions

We pay overdrafts at our discretion, which means we do not guarantee that we will always authorize and pay any type of transaction.

If we do not authorize and pay an overdraft, your transaction will be declined.

What fees will I be charged if Peoples Bank of Kankakee County pays my overdraft?

Under our standard overdraft practices:

We will charge you a fee of up to $30 each time we pay an overdraft.
The maximum daily overdraft fee per presentment or item paid using the Overdraft Reserve Program is $150.00 per day.
No per item handling fee will be charged on de minimis overdrafts. De minimis overdraft for this policy means transactions that overdraw your account by $30 or less.
There is an overdraft fee of $5 per day that will be charged beginning the 4th consecutive business day your account is overdrawn.

Nonsufficient funds (NSF) fees - if an item drafted by you (such as a check) or a transaction you set up (such as a preauthorized transfer) is presented for payment in an amount that is more than the amount of money in your account and we decide not to pay the item or transaction, you agree that we can charge you an NSF fee for returning the payment. Be aware that such an item or payment may be presented multiple times by the merchant or other payee until it is paid, and that we do not monitor or control the number of times a transaction is presented for payment. You agree that we may charge you an NSF fee each time a payment is presented if the amount of money in your account is not sufficient to cover the payment, regardless of the number of times the payment is presented.

PAYMENT ORDER OF ITEMS - The law permits us to pay items drawn on your account in any order (for purposes of this section "items" means checks, orders and electronic transactions). To assist you in handling your account with us, we are providing you with the following information regarding how we process those items. When processing checks and orders drawn on your account our policy is to pay lower numbered checks and orders in numerical sequence, but electronic transactions are paid first in the order received. The order in which items are paid is important if there is not enough money in your account to pay all of the items that are presented. There is no policy that is favorable in every instance. If the smallest items are paid first, you may have fewer NSF or overdraft fees, but the largest, and perhaps more important items (such as rent or mortgage payments) might not be paid. However, if the largest items are paid first, your most important items might be paid but it may increase the overdraft or NSF fees if funds are not available to pay all of the items. We think our policy attains a reasonable balance between minimizing additional costs to you and paying your more important items. We encourage you to make careful records and practice good account management. This will help you to avoid creating items without sufficient funds and incurring the resulting fees.

What if I want Peoples Bank of Kankakee County to authorize and pay overdrafts on my ATM and everyday debit card transactions?

If you also want us to authorize and pay overdrafts on ATM and everyday debit card transactions after your account has been open for 30 days, you may opt in.

You have an ongoing right to change this consent at any time. If your overdraft privilege has been revoked for any reason, the opt-in or opt-out selection may not apply. Please contact your nearest office for more information.

Alternate ways to Opt In/Out or make changes:

By Phone. Our Customer Care Representatives can be reached at 815-936-7600.
By Mail. Peoples Bank of Kankakee County, 333 E. Court Street, Kankakee, IL 60901
In Person. Please visit your local office and ask a representative to help you decide which plan is best for you.