A property’s paint color can communicate a lot. Fortunately, unlike other value-adding renovations, repainting isn’t an expensive task. The best paint colors for selling a house vary according to neighborhood, style, and intended buyers. What’s common between every property’s paint color, however, is purpose.
Before selling a house, it helps to give your walls a fresh paint of color. Work with professional painters to make sure the walls are painted evenly and cleanly. If you need some ideas to get started, these are the best paint colors for selling a house:
Color #1: Neutrals
It bears stating from the get-go. If you’re selling your home in the next two years, choosing a neutral color is most likely to be interpreted as appealing and attractive. Modern buyers love neutrals. When in doubt, a neutral will catch the eye of the widest range of homebuyers.
Color #2: White
If you just want your property sold and don’t want the hassle of anything more, white works. A fresh coat of paint is estimated to add anywhere from 1-3% to a home’s final sale price and is almost guaranteed to help you sell faster.
As beautiful as the other colors on this list are, regular white’s inoffensive and lacks personality but is a standard relied on by property owners who are not interested in giving paint color any more thought.
Color #3: Off-White
While white works wonderful for houses like farmhouses, beach houses, and urban homes, selecting an off-white is a natural-influenced shade that you can’t go wrong with. Off-white shades contrast well with darker colors as well so when you’re building your palette, it’s an excellent starting point.
Color #4: Navy
Navy is a strong color that mixes well with backdrops of trees and nature. If your home’s surrounded by acres of land, rural area, or is located somewhere that gets a lot of sun and blue skies, navy is an excellent choice.
Color #5: Taupe
Since the mid-2010s, taupe has been a trendy color in real estate, interior design, and home staging. Taupe provides a very natural look and works wonderfully with a variety of colors. Increasing curb appeal is made easy with taupe to draw from.
Color #6: Gray
Dressing up a house in gray is a risk because used incorrectly, it can make a home appear unstylish, boring, and unattractive. Use it sparingly, unless the home’s natural aesthetic dictates otherwise. Grays work well on the interior and continue to be a choice for bathroom and kitchen walls.
Color #7: Hunter Green
A hunter green is a beautiful color for a craftsman home or mid-century ranch home. It comes across as natural, eco-friendly, and warm. When it comes to selling a house, you always want colors that are going to come across as natural.
Color #8: Light Blue
Light blue is a soothing color. For bedrooms – adult and children’s rooms alike – it works. For properties by bodies of water, a light blue works in other parts of the home or can be combined with a wider palette of blues and natural colors for something really eye-catching and special.
Color #9: Dusty Beige
A dusty beige is a color we see on a lot of properties in hot desert climates. In this type of environment, darker colors absorb too much heat and don’t work visually. You’ve got to mimic the temperature and climate and with that, a dusty beige is best.
Color #10: Bright Yellow
A home in a particularly sunny location or in cottage country benefit from soft bright colors like a bright yellow. An approach that mirrors the natural surroundings and atmosphere in the neighborhood is a smart move when crafting a home prepped to sell.
Color #11: Gold
Gold is an underrated color and a somewhat less popular choice in what color to paint a house to maximize its sales price. That said, gold-colored homes pull from yellow hues with a slightly subdued approach.
It isn’t overwhelming and, when partnered with the right furniture and home lighting, a gold-colored property can come off looking as warm and welcoming as it would dressed in any other painting color.
Color #12: Black
A black home is a statement. If your property is modern-minimalist or contemporary and renovated, black might work. If your house is on a busy street and you’re looking to differentiate the property from what’s around it, black works.
Color #13: Off-Black
Much off-white provides an alternative to white, so does off-black to black. Off-black is an atmospheric and moody color, perfect for a home office or an interior. For luxury properties, deeper and darker colors like this are more common.
Color #14: Blush
Blush, aka ‘millennial pink’, in an interior design favourite but comes at a risk. A pink-colored property’s going to turn off a large percentage of buyers. If you’re in the right neighborhood though or are targeting younger homebuyers, blush and jewel tones can create a millennial-friendly chic, trendy feel.
Color #15: Colors to Avoid
There are very few colors you want to completely avoid when painting a home’s interior or exterior. Dark red and brown is generally discouraged. A recent study analyzing the impact of color on real estate sales found that homes in dark red and brown often sold for less-than-expected amounts, on average $2,300 less than other colors for similar homes.
