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Stop thinking about it as your "home" and start thinking about it as the "product" you are trying to sell.
Excellent advice. When you move into your new place you can go ahead and paint it up however you please. As it is now the wild colors will distract people from seeing your home's selling points. I've had to train myself to look past ugly furniture and bad taste when looking at house listings. Fugly stuff to me, beautiful to them.
Painting in neutral colors is a low cost, high value enhancement that makes your place easy on the eyes.
I'd put it on the market as is; most buyers troll the Internet looking at the photos, and someone might fall in love with the color (I would)... It takes only one buyer! If no bites, you can always paint it later... I don't agree that EVERYONE prefers "boring beige"...
I owned a row house once that had a very dark living room. I painted the living room a screaming taxi-cab yellow color Martha Stewart called "Sunflower." It was so bright that as the hardware store guy mixed it he checked with me twice to make sure it was what I wanted. Finally, he made me sign a waiver saying it was sold as-is with no returns!
It worked great with my furnishings and the terrible lighting but when I put the house up for sale I was fully expecting my very experienced Coldwell-Banker Realtor to tell me to repaint it. She didn't. I asked why. She said it didn't look at all garish to her and seemed very tasteful with my furnishings. (Context!) She said we'd list the house and if viewers commented on it negatively we could paint it later. The house sold right away (she took great pictures and the listing looked wonderful) to an investor who planned to rent it, so he didn't care. My mother had a Realtor turn down her listing (how often does that happen!) because she had blue kitchen cabinets that she refused to paint. He said blue kitchens don't sell and she'd "never get a buyer because of those cabinets." The third person who looked at it paid FULL ASKING PRICE and said she wanted the house really bad because it had "the kitchen of her dreams." Go figure.
So I'd say it depends what kind of market you're in. If it's a youthful market, you might have buyers who would be attracted by what you have. If it's a seller's market you might get a buyer who will overlook this, especially if you offer a painting concession. If you live in a conservative neighborhood full of "tasteful people," maybe you'll never see a buyer if you don't tone down. Almost any Realtor or experienced seller will tell you neutral is the way to get the MOST buyers, so if you're in a hurry, you probably should paint. But it does only take one person who likes it to get a sale. So if you're willing to be on the market for a month, you might want to keep what you have and roll the dice. You can always take it off the market for a brief period, paint the sucker "taupe" and put it back on the market at a higher price.
I did that successfully once with a weird-looking exterior. I took a shot at thinking I could get a buyer who would focus on the great interior and overlook the unusual exterior. I was wrong in my assessment of the value of curb appeal, lol. So I took it off the market, spent $3,000 getting tan vinyl siding put on the house (which I thought was far more hideous than what was there!) and, presto, the buyers poured in. When I relisted, I jacked up the price to recoup my $3,000. The house looked so different, I don't think anyone but Realtors knew it was the same listing. I actually sold it to a person who had made me an insanely low-ball offer the first time I listed it. So he paid $3,000 more than my original asking price just because I had made the house look 100% generic! But you can't be in a hurry to sell and get away with that strategy.
Do you have a Realtor who knows how to make a virtue out of uniqueness? Get great photos taken and advertise it as a "home for the cheerful family who enjoys the unexpected." "If you're not a beige person, this is the house for you!" Etc. So buyers know what they're getting into. To pretend you're selling the norm and then have them arrive and find the circus will just tic them off. Try to attract those many people who are turned off by neutral (and believe me they do exist, even outside Tucson).
In any case, you need a very experienced Realtor, really knowledgeable about your area, with some patience and good communication skills. If you feel confident you have that, take her/his advice. Best of luck!
Last edited by Jukesgrrl; 04-22-2015 at 03:22 PM..
Reason: grammar
Successful Real Estate marketing, is appealing to the most people.
The more of the public that the property appeals to, the quicker it will sell. If a property appeals to 90% of the public looking for that particular type of property (in this situation a condo), and is priced right for the market it will sell within 90 days anywhere in the county either a fast or slow sales market.
Put a property on the market, that appeals to only 1% of the public, and you may sell it within 2 years, and you may never sell it, unless you price it so low that a professional will buy the property and make the property appealing to 90% of the people looking for that type of property. I have seen hard to sell property (does not appeal to a large percentage of people) where the owner will not lower the price to the level someone will buy it, that will be on the market unsold for years.
It is up to the owner, to determine how quick and even if they can find a buyer that likes the property.
Quote:
Do you have a Realtor who knows how to make a virtue out of uniqueness? Get great photos taken and advertise it as a "home for the cheerful family who enjoys the unexpected." "If you're not a beige person, this is the house for you!" Etc. So buyers know what they're getting into. To pretend you're selling the norm and then have them arrive and find the circus will just tic them off. Try to attract those many people who are turned off by neutral (and believe me they do exist, even outside Tucson).
Fact: The odds of your Listing Agent/Realtor selling any property are very small. Today the buyers insist on a Buyers agent, separate from the Listing agent. If the property does not appeal to the buyers agents, they are not going to even show the home. An agent is embarrassed, if they take a buyer to a home and they just gag and walk away instead of looking at the home to evaluate it as a potential home for their family. It is a good way, to lose the potential buyers confidence in the Realtor and will cause the Realtor to lose a potential buyer.
Putting a home on the market that turns off 95% or more of the market as this one will, is like going down and buying a lottery ticket. You have about the same chance of selling the home as you do of winning the big prize in the lottery. Someone will win, but the chances that the rest of the ticket buyers winning makes the lottery a gamble not an intelligent investment.
If you don't neutralize the paint, you limit the buyer pool. But I wouldn't recommend replacing the floor coverings. I have worked with buyers that have allergies and new carpet had to be removed. It was a waste of money. Again, that's a small group, but everyone's needs are different.
As a side note, I worked with one lady that was so tired of looking at sterile townhouses that she ultimately bought one with black and gold flecked marble tile on the floors and red paint on the living room walls. After 3 years, she's still there and loves the uniqueness of her place compared to others.
The house I sold last summer had bright/deep colors, including an orange room, and sold just fine. I loved the colors, and I didn't change them from the owner before me. I moved into a white white white apartment-- so dull.
BUT, more than one color in a room would be a harder sell for me.
At one time, it was estimated that 40% of the cash buyers here in Las Vegas were Chinese. And they go crazy over the color Red, the color of joy to them!
Now! If I could get a Chinese buyer into my house, and with those bright red countertops, and even the Burgundy walls in the bedroom, I might just have a quick buyer!
Correction: the framing for my kitchen cabinets is purple, but the doors are a soft violet, which compliments the 2 pink walls, and if you open the doors, I even painted the interior of the cupboards bright yellow. Given I'm always leaving the cupboard doors open, I wanted it to look attractive even with the cupboard doors open!
With the above posts, I'm now considering doing a test run, without painting, and the help of an agent, as I'm in no great rush to sell! I'll find it out, soon enough, if the color is a big deterrant, and then I'll paint it! But only with the recommendation of my agent, which rooms.
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