When it comes to selling your home, real estate agents know potential buyers want to see certain things. Paint colors are one of those things homeowners can often overlook. If you want to positively affect the value of your home, the choice of interior paint colors can have a very real impact on how much that real estate agent can get for your home!
Home improvement projects and DIY homeowners can be a match made in heaven. Choosing the right interior paint color has some unique challenges versus choosing exterior paint colors, and paint colors can have an impact on the real estate market value of your home in ways you didn’t expect.
When in doubt it’s never a bad idea to look at a neutral color, like gray, beige, off-white, or taupe. However Zillow has found that potential buyers spent more with certain wall colors (white walls aren’t always the best choice!) and having the right color palette can make all the difference, with the right undertones and simple repaint with the best paint colors from any of the major brands such as Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, Behr and more.
While the general rule of thumb is to go with neutral tones, white paint, agreeable grays or other gray paint colors, going with a light blue may be a choice that brings $1000’s more at closing time!
1. Get the Blues for Profit
Blue is a winning color for interior paint throughout the home. Shades from pale baby blue to deeper periwinkle seem to inspire home seekers to buy and pay more for the homes they’re purchasing, and while color trends are inherently trendy, blue paint colors have been a solid choice for interior design for a long time, and favored by realtors and potential buyers.
According to Zillow, homes with blue bathrooms sold for an average of $5,440 more than homes with other colors on their bathroom walls. Perhaps people like the reminder of the sea and water, but for whatever reason, buyers like blue bathrooms. If you’re selling your home, talk with your painter about the blue colors that will look best with your bathroom tile, shower, and other fixtures.
Blue bedrooms are also a boon to your home-sale gains. Go for soothing, nature-inspired blue tones in the bedroom including cerulean and shades in the blue-gray spectrum. These colors can easily be paired with white or black curtains for sophistication and contrast.
What’s the most profitable color to paint your kitchen? If you guessed blue, you answered correctly. Both dining rooms and kitchens offered higher sales gains when the walls were painted in blue tones. Average sales for homes with blue kitchens or dining rooms showed a premium of over $1,800 being paid versus the prices paid for rooms with other colors. Consider painting your dining and kitchen in coordinating blue tones, to complete the new paint job look.
Blue is also your friend on the front door, but don’t use blue anywhere near the living room. Homes with blue living rooms sold for less than living rooms in neutral shades like taupe, pale beige, and oatmeal. Combinations like Warm gray and white trim or Revere Pewter and a white paint can have an affect, along with the different paint finishes such as a satin finish, matte, or semi-gloss can play into the resale value of your home, and what prospective buyers will be willing to pay.
2. Avoid the Dud Colors
Wall paints in red hues are not attractive to home buyers. Bold brick red and copper red are out for dining rooms, while rose pink and pale pink will also cost you. In the case of the terracotta or vivid red dining room, you could lose out, depending on the buyer! The bedroom pinks will only cost you a few hundred on average. Not all bright colors are the same when it comes to the value of your home.
Marigold and bright yellow are poor choices for the contemporary kitchen if you want to get the most money for your home. Straw and marigold wall paints were the worst performers in the kitchen, even though there was a fresh coat of paint!
Ensure that whatever paint colors you use, it flows with your home decor and overall color scheme.
3. Save Money to Do It Your Own Way
If you can’t bear the thought of blue on your walls, you don’t have to paint your home a color you don’t like. Use white or gray on walls and arrange a blue rug or window treatments to bring the cool blue color into the spaces where blue is favored. You can also paint one wall in a room a shade of blue while painting other walls white, cream, or gray.
While eggshell white and off-white are the least favored bathroom colors for home buyers – you may prefer eggshell white in your bathing space. Have your bathroom and other rooms painted in the colors you prefer, but offer a paint allowance to the new buyers. That way, they can have rooms repainted in their preferred colors without extra expense.
Talk to the interior painting professionals at Elite Painting KC to get advice on the appropriate amount to offer for a wall paint allowance. Our paint experts will also know the current wall and trim colors that are selling the best in your local area, and make sure your home is ready to sell for as much as possible!
Contact Elite Painting KC for all of your interior painting needs. We help you refresh your home to look its best for your home sale showings in the Greater Kansas City, Missouri, region.