Addressing Exterior Colour
If the neon purple house with navy blue trim in Jan’s neighborhood was on the market without a new paint job, most buyers would cross it off their lists as too much work and too expensive to fix. The subliminal message is that if the exterior is purple, the rest of the house must be pretty, um, striking, as well. Avoid sending buyers away by refreshing the exterior colour of your property the smart way.
Start by taking a look at the house’s fixed elements — those unlikely to change, like the brick, roof, and siding. Match your overall colour scheme to the colours of the fixed elements.
The paint and trim colour should fall into a neutral palette so the house appeals to a broad range of buyers. Remember that neutral doesn’t necessar-ily mean white. (Chapter 4 tells you more about choosing colours.)
Because colour is both an art and a science, we recommend leaving it to the experts — the paint companies. They welcome questions and love to help; just be sure you’re getting the advice you need instead of someone’s personal choice of colour.
Exterior Colour Inspiration
Most paint lines have historic palettes for exterior colour schemes that com-plement the house’s fixed elements. The historic exterior colours have softer undertones and are considered more staging safe.
A strong accent colour for the front door is a great way to introduce a punch of colour and increase the overall appeal. We tell you more about using colour in this way in the upcoming section “Welcoming Buyers with Fabulous Front Doors.”
Many sellers try to get around doing exterior colour work by just offering the buyer a painting allowance, but we don’t recommend taking that approach. Imagine that Jan’s neighbor (the one with the purple and navy house) decided to sell and give the buyer a $5,000 painting allowance. He could save himself money by doing the painting prior to listing the house, because he could choose the paint (maybe a mid-range paint that covers well but isn’t guaranteed for 20 years) and the contractor. If he doesn’t complete the work before the buyer sees the house, he runs the risk of a reduced offer and of having people driving by and not even bothering to see the inside — most people can’t envision past what they see.
Make sure you do some colour research before you paint. What other colour schemes do you see in your
Doing this research early gives you optimum time to secure competitive painting bids and get the painting done without rushing the job.
