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!
So, should you paint your home before listing? The answer is, it depends…
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!
Here are some tips for painting your home before listing it for sale:
Avoid Wacky Colours
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.
Thinking about undertaking a bigger home renovation project? Read our 6-part Home Renovation Guide blog series.
You Might Unknowingly Paint a Picture About the Rest of the House
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.
Painting Can Add Value to Your Home
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.
For more ways to add value to your home, read these posts next:
- What Value Can Kitchen and Other Home Renovations Bring Your Home?
- Everson Village Toronto Home Renovation: How I Added $85k in Market Value
- Maximize Your Home’s Value with a $25,000 Interest-Free Loan
Don’t Forget About the Exterior!
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, updating hardware and lighting fixtures and getting 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 complementing 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.
On the fence about updating your home before listing it? Check out my post: Should I Renovate My Home Before Selling It?
What Do Buyers Want?
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 sets 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.
Are there Exceptions?
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.
DIY or Hire a Pro?
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.
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!
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. Get in touch by filling out the form on this page, or by giving me a call or sending me a text today!
