As a Toronto real estate agent, clients often ask how they can ready their home before their listing goes live on the market. We suggest decluttering, depersonalizing, deep cleaning, and staging your home to appeal to the widest selection of buyers possible. When it comes time to sell your home, we want to ensure it’s looking like a million bucks (no pun intended) or more!
Buyers want to walk into your home and envision it as their own. They don’t want to see pictures of Grandma’s birthday, soccer trophies, or height marks on the walls of your child’s growth, and they certainly don’t want polarizing colour choices that make them second guess moving in!
While it is good fun to have pops of colour and bright feature walls, it’s not conducive to the average buyer so we suggest a neutral palette when showing your home. Yes, this might mean painting your pink powder room or green kitchen but it also means breathing new life into tired walls that show wear and tear over the years.
Imagine a buyer coming into your home and looking around to see wall scuffs, stains, peeling paint, popped nails, and cracked drywall. They will see it as unkempt and poorly maintained, wondering if the rest of the home will follow suit.
Since the walls are literally the canvas for your whole house, investing in repainting is an easy and affordable way to improve your home while adding perceived value and big bucks to the final sale price. Experts believe it can add up to 3% to a home’s sale. Imagine that–a potential bonus of up to $30,000 on a million-dollar home.
This is important for the inside as well as the exterior, as the curb appeal of your property is a buyer’s first impression. Envision side by side identical homes–one with a freshly painted front door, porch, garage door, and pristine landscaping–the other, chipped, flaky paint seen on the windows, doors, and a pile of rubbish at the side of the home. Which house are you likely to want to go into? Even if the inside is exactly the same, one is going to be far more inviting than the other.
So, where to start?
The exterior! Assess your property for its curb appeal and see what needs some TLC. Start by removing excess items, update hardware and lighting fixtures and get to painting. The windows, the doors, the garage, the decorative trim, the porch, the deck, the fence and the home itself. Select a neutral colour palette that will appeal to most buyers and choose tasteful hardware that will look modern while standing the test of time and complimenting the style of the home. Some sellers are skilled at DIY projects, others not so much–so if you are not a meticulous painter with an eye for detail, leave the painting to the professionals and invest in someone you know is going to enhance your home and its value. Along with painting, resealing wood on the deck and fence goes a long way to help with that new home feel.
When stepping inside, buyers want to see a move-in-ready space. That means freshly painted walls, doors, baseboards and trim. They see less work for themselves and picture a well-loved home that’s been carefully maintained.
Again, select a neutral palette of whites, greys, beiges, taupes, etcetera. The foyer or front entrance should be bright and uncluttered giving the buyer visions of a spacious, welcoming home–a great first impression as it lays the expectations for the rest of the house. The areas to really focus on updating are bathrooms and the kitchen–along with fresh paint, consider updating hardware and fixtures. Common areas should be light, airy, and inviting. Avoid feature walls or bright colours and keep it simple. A professional is a great resource to utilize as they know the current trends and market desires. Often your realtor will have access to staging furniture, or a great partner company referral to help you avoid purchasing big-ticket items.
Some liberties can be taken with kids’ rooms and nurseries, pale colours like pinks, blues, and mints can work well with the rest of a neutral-painted home BUT showcasing a children’s room may limit interest if your buyer can’t imagine how that room may look as an office or spare bedroom if they aren’t looking to move a family in. Neutral paint tones can work in these spaces and can be accented with softer colours to suggest a range of options for the buyer.
We highly recommend selecting a professional painter for your interior as well. While investing money, they will save you time and the headache of precise cutting in, finicky hard-to-reach spots, and have access to the necessary tools to reach high ceilings and walls.
If you are going to budget for anything when preparing to sell your home, consider a painter–and a trusted, experienced one that comes with an abundance of referrals at that.
If you are thinking about selling your home and would like to discuss ideas on style, colour palette, or staging feel free to reach out to our team and we would be pleased to help.
With spring just around the corner, it’s a great time to crack open those windows, paint those walls and enjoy the benefits of a freshly painted, crisp, clean living space–even if you’re not moving, do it for yourself!
