How Repainting Your Home Can Help You Sell It Quickly
No home seller enjoys a slow sale. The longer a house remains on the market, the less interesting it becomes to prospective buyers. And, of course, it puts your life on hold in many ways. A quick and successful sale is the goal you and your realtor share. Repainting your home can help you sell it quickly.
There is much advice out there, but most of it can be summed up this way: focus on visual appeal. People buy when what they see makes them connect with the house, so outside, it should make a fantastic first impression, and inside, it should be clean, neutral, and easy for buyers to imagine themselves living in. Remember that beige or white are not the only neutral colors that provide a “blank slate” for buyers. Grays and muted blues, such as Early Morning Mist and Quiet Moments by Benjamin Moore, are stylish, yet neutral colors that help your home sell quickly.
Home sales consistently benefit from curb appeal, or how the house looks from the curb, before buyers even reach the welcome mat. A groomed, simple-but-stylish first impression sends all the right messages: This is a well-maintained house; the inside will be just as beautiful; it will be easy for new owners to make the outdoor “look” their own.
There are many ways to add curb appeal, from power washing driveways, to mowing and pruning, to creating new beds or borders of colorful flowers. But no matter what you plant, or how you stage your deck or front door, nothing will hide tired, peeling paint. Not only is it unattractive, but an old paint job implies a house hasn’t been cared for.
Walls are a big visual element and serve as the “canvas” for your home staging, so painting is one foundation of a good sale. In fact, it adds value. A Consumer Reports survey of realtors notes that painting a home’s key rooms can increase its value 1-3%, while exterior painting can up the value 2-5%. Fresh, neutral-hued walls, by painters who know what they’re doing, are a great asset to a speedy sale.
Data for 2014-2017 in the Boston area show that houses closing in October spent four days fewer than average on the market. If we focus on the numbers just for 2017, October remains a good time to sell your house in Boston, with homes spending 8 fewer days on the market. The numbers for November and December, although not as low, were still below average for the year. So now is still a helpful time to plan some curb appeal for your sale. As foliage falls and flowers fade, the paint will constitute even more of your home’s first impression and general visual appeal, those essential factors for getting buyers to connect with your house and quickly make an offer.
If you have any questions or would like to set up an appointment, click here for the “Let’s Get Started” form or give Larkin Painting a call at 508.740.6212.
Lin Nulman, Guest Writer