Real estate is a tough game. Sometimes it’s a seller’s market and that means you might have a horrible, run-down hovel and still be able to charge top dollar for it because it’s in the perfect location and demand is out of control
Sometimes it’s a buyer’s market, and every dollar you invest in improving your home and making it look attractive for a potential buyer can be in vain. As a former estate salesman told me once, “It all depends on the market, but there is one place you can hardly ever go wrong—invest in spiffing up your home with a good quality paint job and you will be miles ahead of your neighbour that didn’t!”
So true! I can’t say how many times a freshly painted bright red or green front door made a super impression. And some bright white on the clapboard, just makes a house look brilliant! You have to remember that when people first arrive they make an instant judgment before they even step out of their car.
Fresh paint makes you think that the owners are dedicated to keeping their property in good condition. That translates into “These people really look after their house, so the rest of it must be good, too!”
Half the Battle
You got them out of the car with your attractive property. The lovely new paint job and the wonderful contrasting trim around the windows and doors—you have already moved into their top two or three choices!
If you’re sincere in your efforts to sell your home, you’ve probably cleared up a lot of the clutter and depersonalised the space so that it’s easy for them to imagine their furniture and personal items instead. Great job!
If you’re truly motivated, you’ve gone around and checked for fingerprints around electric switches, and those places where people always run their hand on the wall when they’re coming down the stairs. And if a little judicious scrubbing didn’t do the job, you found yourself some nice neutral tones and repainted either the damaged areas, or the room or wall in its entirety.
That’s a super investment, too! And that’s particularly true if you have some dated 1980s/1990s faux finish on the wall that is no longer attractive to anybody.
Cover it up, with some pleasantly neutral beige, or any number of off whites, pale blues, or faint yellows. Remove the switch-plates when you paint so there is no unintentional border, or overpainting.
Don’t forget to dust the top of the wainscoting, or clean the baseboards. And clean the top of the door and window frames, because people might actually check. And if they’re in need of a bit of touch-up paint, or a complete overhaul, get that taken care of, too.
The Takeaway
With all the things you can do to make your house attractive, don’t forget to take advantage of one of the least expensive things you can do that has the most significant return. Yes, updating your bathroom would probably be terrific. Putting new cabinets and countertops in the kitchen would probably help out as well.
But the single most effective thing you can do is paint. So investigate that first before you get involved with more costly projects. Besides, painting is fun!
If you need any help with your paint project, you can use our online quote form where you can provide as much detail as you wish, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Or would you rather talk to a live person? Call us on 1300 851 214 because we’d love to hear from you!
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Pure Painting Contractors—making your life more colourful!