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First Time Home Seller Requesting Advice

2,141 Views | 16 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by Agmechanic
Humorous Username
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AG
Looking to sell our house and move to a neighborhood that feeds into better schools. Would appreciate any and all advice in regard to the advice I received from a realtor on Sunday.

Feel free to PM me, or post on this thread. I'm also looking for other realtors to come look at our house/sell it if you have any recommendations.

After a two-hour walk through of our home and property, the realtor highly suggested we repaint all interior rooms in the house. All interior rooms are neutral colors (white/cream/light tan) except for: master bedroom (medium brown); master bath and first floor half bath (blue-ish gray); second floor landing (medium brown).

I'm hard-pressed to want to repaint the entire interior, when, I suspect, anyone buying the home is more likely to paint it the colors they want.

So what say you, RE Board? Should I repaint all of it? Only the non-neutral colors? Or let it be?


Other relevant information:

- Location: Far northwest San Antonio
- Build year: 1990
- SF under roof: Approximately 2,800
- 3 bedrooms (all on second floor)
- 2 full baths (second floor)
- 1 half bath (first floor)
- Formal dining/formal living at front of house
-Kitchen/dining/"actual" living at rear of house
-Utility room at side of house
-All second floor paint is 9 years old at the oldest
All first floor paint is 10 years old at the newest
voorheesdn
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AG
PM sent
Diggity
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It's hard to say without pics but if the colors are loud it's probably a good idea to paint.

Buyers don't have much imagination when it comes to things like that.
SteveBott
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Personally I'd offer a seller paid offset and let the buyer paint after move out. 3k?
Diggity
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That always sounds great in theory, but what usually happens is you get less for the home than if you had painted, then still pay the paint allowance.

Just my experience. Some buyers can see past paint, but many can't.
94chem
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Watch a few episodes of Househunters. Scream at the idiot woman who can't get past the carpet in the t.v. room, or the 25 year old who can't stand the thought of replacing countertops in a $550,000 home, or the guy obsessed with having a man cave in 3500 sq ft DINK-ville, and you will realize what you are dealing with.

At least paint the downstairs.
Absolute
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Is the paint relatively new? Good shape?

I would not repaint if the answers are yes. Would consider it if no.
Humorous Username
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Most downstairs paint is at least 10 years old.
Baba Ganoush
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Without seeing actual pictures, it's hard to say exactly whether painting is needed or not, but a few thoughts to chew on.
- Most home buyers are horrible at overlooking things that are easy to change (like paint color) and will oftentimes walk away from a deal because of it, so try not to assume they'll be able to visualize it with their colors.
- Brown colors are out of fashion and grey's are in. Brown's make a house look dated and old. You'd be surprised how much newer and fresh it looks with a new coat of paint.
- Have the realtor show you pictures of comps so you can see what your competition looks like. If they all look like yours, then you'll match the competition, but a fresh coat could put you above them.
TXTransplant
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Here is my two cents as a buyer:

I've bought three houses, and I've always been in a situation where I needed the home to be move-in ready. While I love the idea of "making a space my own", I've never been in a situation where that was practical. Given that the paint is 10 years old, it probably does need to be redone. As a buyer, even though I would have loved to pick my own paint colors, as long as you go with something neutral (tans, grays, creams), I think most people would be fine with it, even if they wouldn't have picked the exact same colors. IMO, where people go wrong is picking greens or yellows or blues to add a "pop" of color. A color that looks great to one person may look awful to another. Another thing to consider is, how easy is the house to paint. Could it reasonably be a DIY project for the owners? If not (because of really tall ceilings or something like that), then do it for them.

Also, if you're asking top dollar, some people will be annoyed at being expected to pay it and then turn right around and invest more money in a paint job.

Finally, if you do paint, I wouldn't put anything back on the walls. To me, there is nothing worse than seeing a brand new paint job marred with thousands of holes from the giant tv and hundreds of pictures and crosses that were hanging on the wall.
Deats99
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Humorous Username said:

Most downstairs paint is at least 10 years old.
Repaint
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
-George S Patton
East Dallas Ag
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AG
Fresh paint is one of the highest ROI items you can do, especially if the paint is 10+ it needs it. And I agree with the poster above, the earth-tones are not what is popular right now so it will automatically give a dated feel.

Unless you're in a neighborhood where you can drop a sign and a line forms to the left to buy, I would repaint.
Absolute
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Yeah, repaint. Your colors don't sound bad, but 10 years is old and would have lots of little use scuffs


It should be worth it.
AlaskanAg99
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AG
Do the main rooms have crown molding? If so, choose a lighter color than brown, but still dark enough to set the molding off. We bought an older home, had to rip out all the plumbing and install PEX so re texture and paint. House had crown but it was painted flat to match the white walls. A little color and repainted the crown in white semi gloss and boom, now you can see them.

I'd repaint the downstairs and anything brown. The rest...meh. and don't rehab anything as said above. Including your hundreds of crosses.
Humorous Username
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Won't be sad to see the cross wall go down for a while.

No crown molding, but every single room has popcorn ceilings. :/
PhatMack19
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94chem said:

Watch a few episodes of Househunters. Scream at the idiot woman who can't get past the carpet in the t.v. room, or the 25 year old who can't stand the thought of replacing countertops in a $550,000 home, or the guy obsessed with having a man cave in 3500 sq ft DINK-ville, and you will realize what you are dealing with.

At least paint the downstairs.
Househunters isn't real by the way. Don't scream at your TV too much.
scrap
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I have bought or sold 11 properties and I can tell you from experience that most prospective buyers can't navigate bad paint, carpet, cosmetic items. A paint allowance or carpet allowance usually doesn't jive with what they will think it will take to fix the issue. If your paint is an issue and you would consider a paint allowance then PAINT your house. A nice looking home will appeal to more buyers and usually will get you a quicker offer.
Agmechanic
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AG
Paint it
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