Paint Colors that Help Your Home Sell Quickly
Should you paint your walls before listing your home?
If you are planning to list your home for sale, you already know that you have some work to do, no matter how well your home is maintained. Packing, decluttering, staging, repairing, and cleaning go with the territory. Should you also consider painting before you list your home?
The short answer is, maybe!
Do your homework
Before you list your home, do the research. Scrutinize the photos of local homes for sale in your price range. Use a site such as realtor.com or zillow.com to check out your competition.
Go to open house events for model homes or new listings near your residence. Look through home decorator magazines, and ask yourself if your home still looks current. Buyers will compare your home to the competition, therefore you need to stand out.
When failure to paint costs you buyers and money
I highly recommend painting walls if your current style will repel buyers.
Obviously, if you have walls with peeling paint, blemishes, or stains, you need to repaint. Rooms with extremely distinctive or vivid colors may distract buyers or limit the appeal of your home. Consider toning down any wild colors or overly customized paint jobs.
Also, if your home has outdated wallpaper, I advise removing the wallpaper and painting to broaden your pool of potential buyers. When you are selling, what you like doesn’t matter any more! You should be mass-marketing your home to hook a buyer who wants to pay the price you are asking.
What wall colors work well for selling
For most houses and decor styles, light neutrals are the best choice if you’re repainting.
Depending on your carpet, flooring, and furnishings, a pale beige, gray, greige, or sand would have the broadest appeal and pair well with most styles.
Lighter colors make rooms appear larger and brighter, which is what buyers crave.
Dark colors can make rooms appear cavernous; use sparingly.
Select a tone that shares the same undertone as adjacent rooms to avoid clashing.
Paint a sample board and view the paint in the natural light of the room. This will save you the time and expense of repainting over a color that doesn’t look right.
Definitely take the time to do your homework before haphazardly selecting a new color. If you are having doubts as to whether your current wall colors will attract buyers, you should trust your instincts and consider a paint update before listing.
An added bonus is that your house will smell fresh–no buyer ever complained about that!
Shameless self-promoting plug
Gate City Design offers virtual color consultations that can be done via teleconference! It’s ridiculously inexpensive–$50 per space–cheaper than a can of quality paint. If you feel stuck or don’t trust your own sense for color selection, text or call to arrange a virtual consultation with me, your Certified Color Expert!
336-707-7324. info@gatecitydesign.com
Hillary McAlhany
Owner, Gate City Design
HSE-Certified Professional Home Staging/Redesign
Certified Color Expert
E-Design Certified
