Fresh paint can do wonders for your home.
Of all the things homeowners can do to get their homes ready to list for sale, painting is without a doubt the number one thing I recommend as a Stager. It’s easy for homeowners to obsess over lengthy “honey-do” lists that have been accumulating for years and only become of the utmost importance when they plan to sell their home, but so often the items on these lists are irrelevant. Yes, faucets and light fixture upgrades, creaky steps, and minor scratches are important but far less than the appearance of the entire surface area of the inside of your home.
Here are my top reasons why any homeowner should consider prioritizing fresh paint on their to-do lists before selling:
Freshen Up and Clean the Walls
A freshly painted home can make an old house feel new. Used cars are more appealing when they smell and look like new and homes are no different. Think of the walls of your home like skin. Most walls that have been painted more than five years ago look a little malnourished. Scuffs, scratches, holes, and touch-ups show, especially after staging requires some or all of the room’s furniture to be re-arranged or removed. Fresh paint can make a potential buyer feel like they’re walking into a new home, a home that has been painted and staged just for them. A new coat of paint is a chance to smooth out those rough cut lines, clean up the trim, and add some cohesion throughout the home with the use of a consistent colour choice.
Add Light
The paint colour you choose can dramatically affect how bright a room appears. A frequent critique I hear from agents after they’ve toured a home for the first time is that one or several of the rooms, “feel dark”. When you’re selling a home, not only do you want it to look fresh and clean, but bright and airy. Staging can do a lot to help but painting the space a nice bright colour is the best way to accomplish this. My favourite colour to brighten a room is a soft grey. You do not need to use loud, “bright” colours to make a room feel bright, nor should you when you’re planning on selling your home. A soft, warm grey can accomplish the same thing and always looks great with white ceilings and trim. Grey is the new beige after all, and you’ll see it in just about every newly built home out there, so it’s a safe and modern option that will have broad appeal. Not all greys are equal when you’re trying to add light to a room, so be sure to use a soft one. My favourite Greys to use are:
Worldly Grey by Sherwin Williams- the whitest, lightest grey of the bunch
Repose Grey by Sherwin Williams- the truest and moodiest grey
Agreeable Grey by Sherwin Williams- the grey with the most beige undertone (also known as “greige”)
Neutralize
We’ve all seen it: homes with a yellow living room, blue kitchen, purple bathroom, and an assortment of colours found in the bedrooms. It’s not uncommon for people who’ve lived in their homes for a length of time to have painted portions of it without considering it as a whole. Kids become teenagers and assert their independence with a bold colour in their bedrooms. Kids move out, and mom and dad decide to redecorate the kitchen in burgundy.
It’s precisely because homes have so much history that painting them before selling to neutralize and add cohesion is often necessary.
The sadness of erasing some history of your home should be replaced with the joy you’ll feel when someone else decides to create their own history in it because they can see themselves living there. Neutralizing doesn’t have to mean painting your home a single colour, but it does mean thinking of your home as a whole and subtracting any off-putting elements. On the contrary, if you’ve lived with white all your life and are deciding to sell, you may consider injecting a little life into it with a hint of colour- whatever it takes for potential buyers to feel at home.
With a long list of things to do before the ‘for sale’ sign goes up, it can be easy to overlook painting, especially if you don’t like doing it. If your agent and stager suggest it, however, prioritizing it can pay off in a big way. Selling and staging your home don’t have to be difficult. The BREL team has built its reputation on taking away the pain involved in selling your home. In addition to staging, Upstaging can coordinate the painting quotes, help choose the colour, hire the painter and oversee the work if it helps make the process easier for you. With relationships with tried and tested painters and trades around the city, we always make sure the job is done right the first time. If you or someone you know is planning to sell their home, walk around it with a critical eye and consider what fresh paint might do to enhance the look of your home in the eyes of those who might want to make it their own. Then call us, and let us worry about the rest.
Author: Kiel Storms. Read more about him here.