Paint your way to profit

Posted on Jun 20, 2011 in Selling Tips

A good exterior paint job transforms the appearance of your home. It’s like getting a new address almost overnight. When selling your home, it’s important that the property looks at its best. This is where a fresh coat of paint comes in!

Why Is Home Painting So Essential?
There are many reasons why house painting is important. A good paint job beautifies and adds character and spirit to your home, that is why it is important to take adequate time planning which colors, shades, and paint styles you want to decorate your home with. Paint also serves as one of your home’s primary lines of protection against weather, insects and other damage, and therefore it’s important to keep up on as well.

When to Paint?
There is no definite timeline when you should plan to re-paint your home. It generally depends on the environment, the quality of paint that was previously used, how comprehensively your home was prepared beforehand, and whether you hired a good painter. A poor quality paint job can last 3 years before it needs attention and a good one can last for 20 years or more. The most main determining factor is the condition of home’s current coat. Is the paint chipped, peeling or flaking, anywhere? Is there any exposed wood or is there sign of water damage? Finally, how does your home look? If you can see any of the signs mentioned above, your property most likely is in need of a new paint job.

Which Color?
Next, you’ll need to choose your color. There’s no hard or fast rule here. The choice is mostly a personal one due to the variety of colors to choose from, and the combinations that are available when it comes to walls, doors, and other extras. Drive around your neighborhood and town and look for homes that catch your eye. Try to figure out what it is about them that turned your head; maybe it was something you didn’t like (i.e. stay away from that color), maybe the color combinations spoke to you personally or maybe it’s just how they emphasized certain parts of the house. Make note of all these things so that you can keep them in mind as you get your own house painting project underway.

Testing before you Purchase!
Another good point to consider is testing out colors before you start. Test out a few potential colors on a non-descript part of your home just to make sure it’s what you wanted. Colors that look extraordinary on a tiny brochure can hit you in a different way when they’re covering an area of a couple square feet. Try out a few options so you can compare them, and give yourself a few days to consider your impressions. This advice can save you the predicament of what to do those 20 litre buckets of “Green Myth” that you quickly realized looked more like split pea soup once you started painting it on.