Something neutral
If you’ve hired a realtor then you’ve probably been told that you should paint your house. If you haven’t been told that yet, promise, it’s coming. Neutral inside, neutral outside. Don’t fight it! A majority of buyers nowadays will want a house that doesn’t need a lot of fixing up. The buyers will be dealing with loan officers, real estate agents, home inspectors, etc. The last thing buyers want to deal with is more people and more money. They want move-in ready homes.
Veronica Dagher of the Wall Street Journal agrees. She says the biggest factor at work is higher interest rates, “Buyers are already spending a ton of money to get that mortgage… if you're selling a home that needs repair, it's going to sit on the market a bit longer. Simple things can make your home more saleable… do more neutral colors like white or ivory, that can help sell your home faster.”
Shat does this mean for you, the seller? It means that you shouldn’t get cute when trying to sell your home. Even if the real estate agent suggests accent walls, think twice. Keep it simple. Your job as the seller is to make the buyers’ job easier, which in turn will make your job easy. Give your buyers the impression that they can make your home, their home. Provide a blank canvas and let the buyer envision where the sofa is going to be facing and which wall to mount the tv on. And please, for the love of everything, do not pivot from one neutral color to another one. The potential buyer will not care if the home is agreeable gray or repose gray (those are Sherwin Williams colors). Once you pick a color, stick with it. 99.9% of the time, making these adjustments after a couple rooms have been painted will only waste money and cause delays, which in turn will cost more money. You’re splitting hairs here. Don’t do it.
A report from homelight.com, which is a network of 28,000 top real estate agents from across the country, reads, “top agents estimate that for every $3,467 you invest results in a yield of $11,718 in resale value. That’s a whopping 238% ROI.” The saying, it takes money to make money still holds true. Sell your home faster, make more money, stick with something neutral.
