Painting For Resale
Painting Is One Of The Best Return On Investments For Resale
Painting your home still remains one of the most cost effective ways to increase your homes resale value. It is the largest impact of change you can make to your home. A fresh coat of paint will give your house a clean look and feel. It’s all about curb appeal. If the exterior of your house is shabby looking, potential buyers might just drive by having no further interest to see inside.
Be Careful That Do It Yourself Work Doesn’t Have A Negative Effect
When you are considering doing the painting yourself, be confident you are able to do a good job. If the work looks substandard it will actually have the opposite effect and decrease the value of your home. Improper paint preparation will stand out and give the impression that you are careless, and possibly trying to hide something under a hasty paint job.
Paint To Prevent Buyers From Thinking Problems Exist
Buyers look for evidence of leaks in the ceilings and cracking in the walls. Painting will hide blemishes that could make buyers suspect possible problems. A leery buyer means a lower offering price, or even the possibility that they will be scared off. Drywall cracks should be repaired. Once the source of a water stain is resolved it should be painted over. Your fixing of a problem won’t accomplish anything if you leave behind the visual evidence.
Remember You Are Painting To Sell
Remember you are painting for resale and not for your own personal taste. It is recommended to stay away from bold or dramatic colours. By keeping colours in neutral tones you will appeal to the largest market of buyers. This doesn’t mean everything has to be painted white or beige. You can still create an interesting look by using subtle neutral tones. You want to give the feel of a warm and comfortable atmosphere. You want to create a palate that anyone will be able to move into and insert their own furnishings without feeling the need to make a bunch of immediate changes. This is also true when painting the exterior of the house. Buyers do not want to have such a negative feeling about the colour that it becomes one of the first changes they feel they need to make.
What areas are most necessary to paint if I am going to sell my house?
- If you only have time and money to paint one area, choose the front door, and entry area of the house to give a good first impression.
- Repaint any areas that look dingy or are in visible need of painting because of staining or peeling
- Paint over bold or dramatic colours with more subtle neutrals that will appeal to a large majority of buyers
- Get rid of dramatic faux finishing, dated colours, speciality applications or painting designs done specifically for children’s rooms
Older Homes
If you have an older home it can be given a renewed look with the proper repair of imperfections in the walls, doors, baseboards and trims. Don’t forget to take your ceilings into consideration, many people do not realize how discoloured their ceilings have become. Having them freshly painted can add a lot of brightness to your rooms. The exterior of an older home can be brought up to date with the right colour selections. Old siding can be made to look new again by sanding, filling nail holes and caulking cracks before it is painted.
Before and After
Consideration was being taken to reside this older home. We did a lot of preparation work to the existing siding. Rough areas were sanded, any cracks between the ranch boards were filled with caulking. All imperfections in the siding were filled. A more up to date colour was chosen. Other details of the house and landscaping were changed as well to give a more updated look. Overall the painting made the largest impact. The costs of the updating were still much cheaper than residing the whole house. When it was all done the house had a renewed and more modern look.
Another Before And After Done For Resale
This next home was one of our favorite painting make overs, probably because we were able to create such a dramatic change. This house had wood siding that was still in very good condition. It just looked tired and worn. A current paint colour was applied to the siding. Trim was placed around the windows to make them more predominant and modernize the house. The fascia, soffits, deck railings and posts were all painted the lighter trim colour to add accent features and interest. Fresh and appealing landscaping was added as well as a new door and front entry deck. The amount of money spent doing these improvements was well worth it, the value of the house was increased dramatically.
