As you prepare your home for sale, memories fill every room. The spicy red dining room, the children’s bedrooms, your cozy living room with the family portraits, all greet you as you tour your home. The things that make your home personal, the work you did to customize it to fit your family, those are the first things a potential buyer will see as well. The right buyer will love those details, but you may lose the interest of many other potential buyers and have to wait for “the one.”
Often, a Realtor will gently suggest DE-personalizing your home just a little as you get it ready for sale. This allows buyers to tour your home and imagine their furniture, their family, in the home…and feel more comfortable touring it as well. The more easily a buyer can imagine himself at home, the more likely they are to want to buy it. The two most common suggestions to create a more neutral and welcoming décor are to carefully pack and store away highly personal items like photographs and collections and to paint rooms with a fresh clean coat of neutral paint.
The rich red dining room or romantic red accent wall in the bedroom may have to go. You want your buyers to dream of your home’s potential, not calculate the expense and work of redecorating. Paint is inexpensive, easy to apply, and makes a big impact. Sites like BenjaminMoore.com suggest asking your paint dealer for high-hiding paint. You’ll need a primer if there are stains on the wall, but a high-quality paint should do the trick. Generally, you’ll need 2-3 coats of high-quality paint to cover all the red. And with paint, the expense is in the amount of pigment, so a higher quality paint will hide the red better, as it has more pigment in it. Investing a few extra dollars can save you hours of work.
Prepare your wall surface by making sure it’s clean and free of loose paint. Allow each coat to dry before adding another coat, that way you don’t pick up the first coat and re-distribute it! Check woodwork and adjacent walls for specks of red, and mask them to ensure they stay neat and free of excess paint. And if you have several rooms with bold colors, you might consider a professional painter. Your time is valuable, and it may cost you less to hire a pro and use your valuable time on another project. Sites that rate professionals, such as Angie’s List, may be good sources for painters that will do your job well and for a reasonable cost. While it does charge a membership fee, it may be worth the peace of mind of knowing you’re hiring the right painter.
Just as in painting, a little preparation can make the home selling process easier and faster. Pale neutral wall colors make rooms seem bigger and brighter and make it easier for potential buyers to imagine owning your home. Fresh paint gives the impression of a clean and well-maintained home. Just what every buyer prefers! While you must be the ultimate judge of how much you want to do to prepare your home for sale, consider neutralizing bright wall colors with a fresh coat of beige, white or the current trending neutral. Happy home-selling!
