painting a house before selling it?

thebourke

do most people get their house painted before trying to sell it?

does it add much value?

Leg End Reject

It won't add value as such, but clean walls and woodwork in neutral colours will attract interest and allow prospective buyers to imagine what they'd do to the place. Hide all clutter and personal items too and have everywhere spotless.

StevenToast

Ya...my wife painted her 3 bed semi D just before marketing it...exterior and interior.....she had it looking in turn key shape and she had plenty of interested parties....

A2LUE42

Depends on the current condition. If it is currently pretty ok and you paint some of it, that just highlights the difference between the old and new. Cleaning and decluttering the house and staging it for sale is much more cost effective.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058309018/painting-a-house-before-selling-it

Really depends on what condition it is in. If the house looks well in photos/viewings, it may reflect more positively, if it looks like a shiiithole, some might be put off.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120969591#Comment_120969591

This basically.

Last time I sold a house I'd painted it about two years before so it still looked great. Was no need to do anything to it other than clean it up every time there was a viewing.

Princess Calla

As others have said it really depends on the condition it is in now.

You won't get extra money, however I remember when I was buying mine I went with the house that was freshly painted.

For me it was one less headache to deal with.

At the time though it was a buyer's market so I had a choice of properties. At the moment I think it's a seller's market so you may not need to go to any extra trouble.

Like others have said though, pack your stuff away. It's no longer your home but an asset you want the best possible price for.

L1011

Condition and colour of the existing paintwork are both important - neutral as hell for colour is ideal, and often the cheapest paint anyway. If there's a purple bedroom and a school bus yellow bathroom, you'd want to paint those at least.

herbalplants

Depends on the location. If it is in right location, you absolutely do nothing to it, it won't make any difference to the price you will achieve. In fact most buyers like putting their own mark on what they buy. Declutter only.

Fiona

I full a full repaint and replaced the floors in my apt before I sold it. It was in a bad area, I wanted to get out so I made it turn key and it worked.

Depends on how desperate you are to sell I guess.

RichardAnd

Would you go on a date without taking a shower? Painting won't change the value of the house, but it will make it look better. That will get more people interested, and don't forget that a lot of people out there are totally useless. The less work that they need to do after moving in, the better.

My advice is to pick neutral colours that don't attract much attention. My whole house is painted either white or grey (of varying shades).

Dial Hard

In the current market, no, unless the house is in absolute bits. My (rented) house was sold last year, the owner (my SiL) asked the agent should she paint it and he said not to bother. House went sale agreed to the first viewer in less than a week, much to my chagrin.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121023972#Comment_121023972

I actually viewed a house that was previously rented. Two of the bedrooms were half printed, by which I literally mean that half of the room was painted green with the rest being off-white. The EA told me that the owner had asked the tenant to paint the rooms, but he must have quit after he realised that he was getting hoofed out. Mad....

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024024#Comment_121024024

In fairness, you can't really blame him. Plus you'd think the owner would have finished the job himself, like.

RichardAnd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121024037#Comment_121024037

I don't blame him at all. Though, in his position, I wouldn't even have picked up the roller in the first place!

I wouldn't paint externally. Fresh external paint can often be a sign that the seller is trying to cover something up especially cracks.

Busi_Girl08

There's a house down the road from us up for sale. Exterior walls are a state with entire chunks of paint cracked/peeled away. Interior (from Daft photos) aren't much better - badly faded paint, and black mould spots all over the place. The house has been on sale well over a month now and it always amazes me how no-one thought to give it at least a lick of paint for the sake of an easier (and possibly better) sale.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121026081#Comment_121026081

There's no such thing really as a 'lick of paint' when it comes to exterior work, unless you do a really shoddy job. Can be fairly pricey to do properly. You'd need to remove a lot of that cracking and peeling paint and prepare surfaces before even opening a can of paint.

Inside is a bit of a different story in a lot of cases though.

ec_pc

It's all about the first impression, I have sold 2 houses in my lifetime, the first one was all freshly painted and sold in 6 days and just recently sold another in 11 days again it was painted top to toe (which was not cheap) but meant a quick sale in comparison to similar properties on the same road which were grubby and are still for sale. For me the value is getting the interest from potential purchasers, getting bids and selling. I don't do it to get extra money but I am sure I cover my costs based on the bidding and price over asking. All relative really.

Personally, I think its worth it to get interest and a quick sale.

Most people want a house that they can just walk into and live comfortably in for a few years without starting to redecorate immediately, especially when finances might be tight when starting off.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121026162#Comment_121026162

You only really need to do all that prep work if you want it to last.

Since you are selling it, you dont care if it lasts, 99% of buyers wont be checking to that detail and will only spend maybe 45 mins total in the house before buying.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121027579#Comment_121027579

I wasn't taking about inside the house, reread the post I was quoting. Paint away on the inside to your heart's content, it's fairly straightforward in most cases and you can do it yourself for cheap enough.

I was talking about painting the exterior of a house that has bad cracking and peeling. You can't just throw paint on it, it'll look terrible. Couple that with the fact that painting the exterior is a lot more challenging than painting the interior as it requires ladder work. A lot of people couldn't do it themselves and they'd need to hire someone.

GreeBo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045690#Comment_121045690

Maybe you need to follow your own advice and re-read my post?

I didnt mention painting inside the house.

You can indeed paint over cracking and peeling exterior paint, that was precisely my point. People dont pay attention to these things when buying a house. They may notice cracking and peeling but they wont notice cracking under freshly painted exterior walls.

DownByTheGarden

I painted the outside and the inside of our house before we put it on the market. Difference was night and day and im sure it had a significant impact on the interest in it. Well worth a few days work. The one we bought hadnt been painted in years and im sure it had an impact on the price we ended up paying too. It looked very tired. Another couple of days and a few buckets of paint and it looked like a showhouse.