Finding the right paint color to get from For Sale to Sold!

Conventional wisdom dictated for years that when you sell your home, the first thing you need to do is paint all the walls white. I sold a home in California several years ago, and the first Realtor that wanted my listing told me over the phone that, sight unseen, I needed to paint all the walls white. No exceptions. Luckily, I found a wonderful Realtor that came out to my home and declared that the beautiful wall colors would enhance the prospect of a sale, not detract. The home sold the first day, with multiple offers, and there was not one white wall in that house! Thanks to the explosive interest in networks like HGTV and DIY, home buyers are more sophisticated, and expect a home to have distinct personality. I’ve worked with countless homeowners to choose the right paint color to enhance their home, and put their home at the top of a buyer’s short-list.

I’ll share with you some of the the tips that I give my clients for getting their home in sell-ready shape!

Less is definitely more. Unless the wallpaper or wallpaper borders were put up in your home in the last five years, you may want to consider removing them. If you have a lot of wallpaper, or are not sure if it looks dated, ask your Realtor or a good friend who will be honest, if the wallpaper dates the house. While removing it can be a pain, not removing dated wallpaper can turn buyers off. Buyers don’t want to remove it either. Some painters can successfully paint over wallpaper, but this is best left to an expert to decide if it’s possible. While you’re at it, take a hard look at your window treatments, too. If your fabric valances were put up around the same time as your wallpaper, it might be time to retire them, too.

Variety is the spice of life, up to a point. Enhancing a home for sale by adding or changing paint is more than just choosing a beige paint and coating every wall with it. Too much beige begins to look like too much white, but too many paint colors throughout your home just looks like too much. Choosing buyer-friendly paint palettes gives you a chance to capitalize on your home’s personality, and even soften your home’s flaws. You’ll want to keep your palette somewhat small when selling your home. Choose a unifying neutral for your entry, halls, and several rooms. The goal with your pre-sale paint makeover is to appeal to the widest possible audience, and at the same time do everything you can to prevent disqualification. For your neutral, unifying, color try these:

Natural Cream	Fairmont Lobby Cream	Oat Straw

A colorful welcome. A welcoming front door puts buyers in the right frame of mind for touring your home. Now it not the time to drag out a left over can of paint from another painting project. Treat yourself and your door to a fresh and beautiful color. Try these colors above your welcome mat!

Pomegranate	Himalayan Paw	Marlboro Blue

Reconsider the red dining room. Red has been a popular color for the last several years, because it makes a bold statement in the one room you expect a bold statement! There are many gorgeous shades of red in dining rooms across your town. If you have not already indulged in a red dining room, consider something different. Chances are, after a buyer sees numerous homes with red dining rooms, they will stop seeing the rooms for their unique qualities and simply walk right through. Here are 3 neutral, yet dramatic, color suggestions for your dining room that will leave a positive impression on buyers.

Tranquil Blue	Warmed Cognac	Olive

Heart of the home. Painting the kitchen is often the first, and sometimes only, room that gets painted when you move into a new home. The kitchen and adjacent eating area of family room is likely considered the “heart” of your home. Buyers gravitate toward those rooms, and they can make or break a sale. If you’ve chosen a nice neutral color for the majority of your home’s interior, the kitchen area is where you’ll want to kick it up a notch with color while keeping it neutral enough to appeal to a wide group of buyers. Here are some delicious kitchen colors to get you started.

Lemongrass	Constellation	Home and Hearth

The last word. I’m often asked what are a few things I’d do to make a house appealing to buyers, if I could only do three things. Here they are:

1) Paint. You can transform any home with cans of paint and a well-planned palette. If it’s been years since you’ve painted, it might be time to freshen up your look. If possible, tour model homes and see what palettes are popular with buyers in your area, and see which ones are absent. Create a palette idea for your home, and always test the paint colors faithfully before committing them to an entire wall. Perfectly-sized paint samples in your favorite colors are available for testing.

2) De-clutter. They way we live vs. the way we live when our homes are for sale, should look pretty different. Consider moving non-essentals into a storage unit, or have that garage sale now, before your home sells. Buyers want to see your lovely home, not your stuff.

3) Do all those little projects you meant to do when you first bought your house (you know the ones!) Those projects are the ones you saw when you bought the house and told yourself you would change right away, but then you lived with them awhile and got used to the tarnished gold faucet, the ceiling fan in primary colors, the broken light switchplate. You’ve gotten used to them, but your buyers won’t.

Happy home-selling!