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As a new house buyer, I could live temporarily with soft or dulled colors I did not like, but not with brilliant, primary or secondary colors. Your place woul be listed as quirky on websites i have seen. And quirky is not attractive to 99% of buyers. My problem with your place would be living with that level of intensity of color for long enough to paint the 5 coats of cover paint it might need to recondition it. I hope you painted in a matt finish. If glossy you are in more of a bind.
On the other hand, it does set your place apart. There might be someone looking who really does like the excitement all that color generates. Get the painters lined up for a month from after you list, then see what happens.
Last edited by luv4horses; 04-22-2015 at 07:49 AM..
I'll be putting my house up for sale this summer, have owned it 19 years, a townhouse, and, figuring I was going to die here (just turned 65), I painted every room a different color, in some cases, 2-3-4 different colors in one room, like the kitchen, with bright red countertops. Even the interior of the garage has 10 different colors!
I've been told: You've got to paint all the walls white or beige before you sell it!
Alternative? How about throwing in a painting allowance into the price?
As I look through houses for sale, in Tucson where I plan to move, I see lots of interiors of homes with lots of bright colors, but being me, it's no deterrent to me whatsoever if bedroom walls are painted purple or cobalt blue!
I'm really in no great shape to re-paint this entire house, but I could be up to it, if I had assurances that if I did whiten all the walls, it would sell better. Is it true, the white or beige walls make a house sell better?
What do you think?
TRY TO SELL IT FIRST. Don't listen to that bit about it going "stale" on the market. Try it brightly painted first, then if it just sits or you get low-balled, you can roll it out again in its new "designer neutrals!" reincarnation.
Are you in a hurry to sell? If not, give it a test run on the market as is. Its unique, and someone may love it. Not every buyer out there is cookie cutter. If after a few weeks, you get no bites, or nothing but bad comments about the paint, then worry about painting it.
I'm one of those who can't. It's a huge PITA to have to paint a home you just closed on when you're trying to move in. I don't want to have to deal with the hassle of repainting a house I just purchased, and I know many other buyers are the same. Painting is not like a lot of other home projects. It requires removing, or at least covering, all the furniture in the room during the time it's being done. And it can become expensive depending on how brightly the house is painted. Paint color is something that effects the mood of the entire room. I agree with Mike. At least some of the rooms should be repainted, and the more rooms you repaint, the better it will be for you as a seller.
I'm that way about floors.
If I can at least get my family and our stuff in the house, I can complete projects that need to be done on my own time frame. But I don't want to mess with projects that require me to pay extra to hold my stuff in storage while floors are being redone.
If I have to wait to have a contractor come in and redo flooring (or in your case painting), that affects my moving schedule and possibly our closing date. I do NOT want to mess with that.
This is why it's about more than just personal taste, OP, and why a home that is as close to move-in ready as you can get it will usually sell quicker.
I think most people look at several properties in their preferred location and then decide, amongst those properties, which best suits their desires and will need the least amount of work and money to make it their own. If I'm looking at a property and I'm thinking "I have to repaint the ENTIRE inside, replace the carpet, GUT the kitchen, and re-tile the bathroom floor just to make it livable"....well let's just say I would scratch it off the list unless it is priced at least 20K below the others.
If I wualked into a house like that I'd laugh and walk out. It's not that I hate color, but it would be too distracting to think clearly. And I would be thinking of the huge pain of covering bright colors. It isn't easy!
Wait, wait, wait... the kitchen cabinets are purple??? Pictures please! Look, what you have now, there may be a buyer out there in the world who is just like you; energetic, creative, ect. But assuming you don't want to wait forever for this unicorn buyer to appear; you'll get better results by painting at the very least the main rooms/hallways a neutral.
Paint, paint, paint, and paint some more. Pick a nice neutral color and just do it. Don't argue with public perceptions -- it is what it is. Stop thinking about it as your "home" and start thinking about it as the "product" you are trying to sell.
Purple cabinets? Sorry, I know you love them -- but the LAST thing you want is for people to remember your house as the one where they stood in the kitchen -- the heart of the home! -- shuddering at the color symphony.
Pull up the carpets, throw down some hardwoods on the main floor, new carpets elsewhere. Or else you will a) never sell it or b) sell it at a huge discount. If you've had those carpets for 19+ years, I'm betting there's some serious deferred maintenance elsewhere, too -- at least, that would be the perception.
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