House for sale - must all walls be white or cream?

[Anonymous]

I HATE white walls. I think it looks industrial and depressing. Your colors sound fine to me. If you do decide to paint, go for a neutral beige rather than white.

[Anonymous]

Navajo white on walls, ceiling paint white, then white trim paint. Looks clean and a perfect canvas down the line for new owners.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for all the input. The walls are all in need of freshening anyway, so we were trying to decide whether to keep the more neutral colors as they are or since we're painting anyways to make everything cream or white.

All trim throughout the house is the same color right now. All rooms are painted, including some that are more vivid and we know need to be painted neutral.

[Anonymous]

I painted every room in our house out of necessity. The colors were boring and not our style (living room was light light cream/beige, bathroom pale yellow, bedroom pale pink, and kitchen LIME GREEN - yes lime green). But I loved the house anyway, we just did a LOT of painting!

[Anonymous]

I know this has nothing to do with your question, but I hate the whole staging thing. People spend all this money repainting their walls off-white (usually with crappy builder grade paint), only to have the new buyers come in and re-paint using colors to their own liking. It's so wasteful.

I wish people could look past stupid shit so owners could spend more time on important things like leaky roofs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this has nothing to do with your question, but I hate the whole staging thing. People spend all this money repainting their walls off-white (usually with crappy builder grade paint), only to have the new buyers come in and re-paint using colors to their own liking. It's so wasteful.

I wish people could look past stupid shit so owners could spend more time on important things like leaky roofs.

+1 and I'm the OP. We watch HGTV and it drives me crazy when people won't buy a house because they hate the color in the dining room. Yes, it's a pain to repaint once you move in, but it's paint people! I'm much more focused on things like countertops, cabinetry, flooring. Things that would be harder or more expensive to change.

[Anonymous]

I have also heard that no pictures on the wall is a good idea so people can imagine themselves there, but it always seemed odd to me when there were no family pics in the house. It really felt better for me when I could see pics of the people who were living there, so I wasn't busy imagining what they were like. It didn't make it feel like "their" house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this has nothing to do with your question, but I hate the whole staging thing. People spend all this money repainting their walls off-white (usually with crappy builder grade paint), only to have the new buyers come in and re-paint using colors to their own liking. It's so wasteful.

I wish people could look past stupid shit so owners could spend more time on important things like leaky roofs.

I got a great deal on a townhouse that wasn't selling, partially because the owner had made some odd paint colors and had old-fashioned furniture, and a horrible light box in the kitchen. However, it had a new roof and new windows throughout. I painted it, ripped out the lights and did a couple of other small things, and now it's worth about $125k more than I paid for it two years ago. Who cares if a kitchen is yellow or pink?

[Anonymous]

I hate cream color paint. Looks dirty.

Go for a light grey or greige. More contemporary and fresher looking.

[Anonymous]

I agree that there's no need to repaint with those soft colors. Wouldn't bother me at all. I do get annoyed when I see very intense colors on bedroom walls because they aren't as easy to cover, but I wouldn't pass on a really great house over paint colors no matter how much I hated them.

The key is for the house to be sparkling clean. And I mean CLEAN. No scuff marks on the walls, no dirt on the carpets, no rust on bathroom fixtures. If I see that kind of carelessness, I immediately assume the owner is negligent and has also neglected important maintenance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that there's no need to repaint with those soft colors. Wouldn't bother me at all. I do get annoyed when I see very intense colors on bedroom walls because they aren't as easy to cover, but I wouldn't pass on a really great house over paint colors no matter how much I hated them.

The key is for the house to be sparkling clean. And I mean CLEAN. No scuff marks on the walls, no dirt on the carpets, no rust on bathroom fixtures. If I see that kind of carelessness, I immediately assume the owner is negligent and has also neglected important maintenance.

I think it's silly to assume negligence based on those things, especially scuff marks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have also heard that no pictures on the wall is a good idea so people can imagine themselves there, but it always seemed odd to me when there were no family pics in the house. It really felt better for me when I could see pics of the people who were living there, so I wasn't busy imagining what they were like. It didn't make it feel like "their" house.

Agree here. We had a realtor over last week as we plan to sell. She emphasized a shit-ton of de-cluttering (as in whole pieces of furniture), and only noted a botched repair job of mine that needed tending....which was my failed attempt to paint part of our ceiling to clean candle soot. She never said we need to repaint the house, just the ceiling that needs it. She also complimented our family pics and refuted that theory that they need to go.

OP, also take note of a previous conversation about the fact that fresh paint smell can be a turn off and some buyers think its masking other flaws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have also heard that no pictures on the wall is a good idea so people can imagine themselves there, but it always seemed odd to me when there were no family pics in the house. It really felt better for me when I could see pics of the people who were living there, so I wasn't busy imagining what they were like. It didn't make it feel like "their" house.

Agree here. We had a realtor over last week as we plan to sell. She emphasized a shit-ton of de-cluttering (as in whole pieces of furniture), and only noted a botched repair job of mine that needed tending....which was my failed attempt to paint part of our ceiling to clean candle soot. She never said we need to repaint the house, just the ceiling that needs it. She also complimented our family pics and refuted that theory that they need to go.

OP, also take note of a previous conversation about the fact that fresh paint smell can be a turn off and some buyers think its masking other flaws.

And you can always bake a batch of cookies right before the open house to mask any smells.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have also heard that no pictures on the wall is a good idea so people can imagine themselves there, but it always seemed odd to me when there were no family pics in the house. It really felt better for me when I could see pics of the people who were living there, so I wasn't busy imagining what they were like. It didn't make it feel like "their" house.

Agree here. We had a realtor over last week as we plan to sell. She emphasized a shit-ton of de-cluttering (as in whole pieces of furniture), and only noted a botched repair job of mine that needed tending....which was my failed attempt to paint part of our ceiling to clean candle soot. She never said we need to repaint the house, just the ceiling that needs it. She also complimented our family pics and refuted that theory that they need to go.

OP, also take note of a previous conversation about the fact that fresh paint smell can be a turn off and some buyers think its masking other flaws.

And you can always bake a batch of cookies right before the open house to mask any smells.

That isn't going to mask the smell of new paint to anyone with a nose.

[Anonymous]

OP, I would leave it. Unless you can paint everything yourself, paying someone to paint it all in neutral colors will cost you thousands. We sold a house with an orange playroom, a red office and a green dining room. As long as it looks good with what you have in it, it should be too big a factor. And, I might add, this was a house on a VERY busy street, so it wasn't like it was going to get snapped up regardless of what we did. We did repaint the halls and the breakfast room to make them more neutral, though.