Picture-perfect house paint or stain is a must when selling your home

Here comes spring – and with that, the busy prime real estate season. Sellers often list their homes after the winter holidays and through May, with new listings tapering off across the year and into the winter cycle again. Buyers are ready to step into the spring sunshine, explore the offerings, and get settled into their new homes before the start of the next school year in fall. At Matthews Painting, we’re already scheduling exterior house painting and staining work into May – and we know how important it can be to a successful home sale!  Good news for our Goshen, Indiana and Columbia City, Indiana customers.

The advice you normally see about preparing your home usually includes solid tips about getting a good return on the money you put into remodeling, and whether that bathroom update or those new vinyl windows will pay off. There’s always tips on staging your home for showings, with advice on everything from removing clutter to introducing the yummy scent of bread or cinnamon apples so that potential buyers feel that the space is warm, inviting and easy to envision as their home.

Painting or staining is on pretty much everyone’s tip sheet. Real estate agents talking about the all-important curb appeal of a home know they can’t excel without exterior painting or staining that’s flawless, and neither can you. With so many popular home and garden shows – and so much value people want from their hard-won dollars, especially since the housing recovery – most potential buyers expect perfection. They don’t want to take on a house to paint from the outset, and even investors will lower their offers on the basis of a badly needed paint job.

Since clear-eyed potential buyers don’t look past imperfections or try too hard to imagine what a home will look like, they’re making decisions about the home from the curb and beyond. Once they’re in the door – and yes, fresh paint on the door is an excellent and easy improvement – they form an immediate sense of whether or not this home will make their families happy. Interior painting is one feature that literally can make or break the deal, and the cost benefit to the seller is worth more than most other updates.

It’s hard to envision the home you’ve loved as just another address, but you have to make emotion-free decisions ahead of listing it on the market. Everyone understands why that bright baby blue in the bedroom tugs on your heartstrings – even if the baby went to junior high this year – but a more neutral paint color is a better option. And if you walk into the bathroom and wonder why orange paint ever seemed like a good idea, and think maybe it was at the time? You can bet potential buyers will wonder the same thing as they’re laughing in the car on the way to the next open house, and scratching your color clashes off the short list.

Interior neutral paint colors don’t have to be boring though. If you’re used to old ideas about apartment walls in painted in eggshell white or a ubiquitous and soul-sucking beige paint, you’re missing out on the creative neutrals available today in popular gray paint tones, and in subtle blues and greens. On the other hand, there are situations where a bold and sunny yellow paint is what makes the kitchen stunning, especially with a glossy white trim paint, and you may just want a fresh coat of paint or stain on what’s already there! Don’t overlook that white paint either: Right now, bright white paint is a trend in rooms across the house, and it’s smart at the very least to freshen up trim.

We’ve worked with lots of sellers at Matthews Painting – and lots of buyers too – and know what it takes to deliver that striking look from the curb into the kitchen with a professional paint job, so don’t hesitate to call the painting professionals before putting your house on the market. We’re ready to help you look your best!

Matthews Painting has now expanded our interior and exterior wall, ceiling, trim, door, window and kitchen cabinet painting and staining, wallpaper removal, drywall repair, deck staining and sealing and log Home staining and sealing into the Goshen, Indiana, Columbia City Indiana, Warsaw, Winona Lake, Leesburg, Syracuse, Indiana, North Webster, North Manchester, Lake Wawasee and Lake Tippecanoe areas.