The Best Paint Colours for Selling a House
Typically, when choosing paint colors you want to choose colors that align with you personal style and personality. However, when selling your home it’s important to choose colors that appeal to the masses. It would be challenging to find a buyer that shares your appreciation for neon green!
Interior Paint Colors
The obvious interior paint color choice would be white, providing a blank slate for your prospective buyers. While white is a great place to start, if you really want to maximize your selling price, the goal should be to create a warm and inviting environment where your prospective buyers can picture themselves living.
Be sure to avoid using dark paint colors, anything taste specific, and consider the following!
Zillow analyzed more than 135,000 photos from listings around the USA between January 2010 and May 2018 to identify which paint colors were associated with a home selling for more or less. The analysis controlled for all other wall colors, square footage, the age of the home, the date of the transaction and location.
They found that homes with kitchens painted in a soft gray-blue sold at an average of a $1,809 premium, where as red kitchens decreased homes’ value by an average of $2,310. Brown dining rooms also decreased the average selling price of a home by an average of $1,684.
Bathrooms painted in periwinkle blue, on average, increased homes’ value by an average of $2,786. Having a professional painter paint your bathroom should cost a only a few hundred dollars, talk about the return on investment! Zillow has released a 2019 update, stating that homes with white bathrooms sold for an average of $4,035 less than expected! Hard to believe, but true, white bathrooms do have a commercial feeling to them…
Zillow found that homes with living rooms painted in light browns such as taupe or beige, sold for a premium of $1,926.
Homes with light blue bedrooms sold for a premium of $1,856.
Exterior Paint Colors
Homes’ exterior paint colors also had an impact on selling prices. (Have to have that curb appeal!) Homes painted with light grey siding and beige trim sold for $3,496 more than similar homes with brown or tan stucco.
The ultimate return on investment comes from your front door color choice! Houses with navy blue front doors added $1,500 to the selling price on average when compared to all other colors.
The Verdict:
Based on the research, choosing the right colors for selling your house can easily add $10,000 to your selling price, not too mention speed up the sales process. Keep in mind that the $$$ amounts stated in this blog post are based on average US selling prices; the price increases in the Victoria, BC market would likely be even higher! Of course you have to consider the time and effort of painting yourself, or the cost of hiring a professional painter. My opinion is that it makes the most sense to concentrate on painting the areas with the highest return on investment. For example, most interior areas and the front door. It’s likely that painting the exterior of your home will cost more than the $3,500 expected gain from choosing the right colors. Other factors to consider would be the color and condition of the existing paint; if it’s in an obscure color or in rough shape, then it might make sense to paint before listing your home for sale.
Contact Islanders’ Choice Painting Co. here if you’re planning on selling your home in Victoria, BC and would like to schedule a free estimate.