Painting - Daniels Real Estate

Originally published 1/14/2019

A time honored saying in the real estate world is that paint is worth hundreds of dollars in the can, but thousands of dollars on the wall.

Along with decluttering, a fresh coat of paint can do wonders to make your home look and smell newer and well cared for. And there’s nothing like new paint to deal with all of the stains, marks, and scrapes that inevitably build up on the walls and doors of your home. Take a close look around your light switches and door knobs, and you’ll see what I mean – especially if you have young children.

The colors you choose can have a significant impact on the sale-ability of your home. When repainting, it’s always a good idea to stick with a solid, neutral color. “Greige,” a beige color with a hint of gray is a good default color.

But, sometimes a bold color can have a big impact. The most recent Zillow Paint Colors Analysis found that one small painting project can increase the value of your home over $6,000! Zillow reported that simply painting your front door black increases the sale price by $6,271.

Also, according to the Zillow report, painting your kitchen cabinets in a tuxedo style (white or light colored upper cabinets, navy or black lower cabinets) can increase value over $1,500.

However, painting your kitchen walls red can lower value over $2,000.

The links to the full Zillow information are below. Please note that these Zillow numbers are averages. Your mileage may vary.

Once you decide on a color scheme, your next decision is whether to do the work yourself, or hire a painter to do the work for you. While painting can be time consuming, it isn’t a technically complicated skill. If you are willing to put in the time, you can save yourself a substantial amount in labor costs.

Here are a few pointers to help you get your painting job done:

Take the time to fill and sand any irregularities, holes, or gouges.
Invest in a work platform. Most home improvement stores will carry working platforms from roughly 2 to 4 feet wide. They are about 1 ½ feet high, which will give the average person enough height to reach the top of a standard ceiling. The width of a work platform will allow you to reach a much broader section of the wall without having to constantly move a step ladder.

Use canvas drop cloths instead of plastic. Canvas does a good job of protecting your floor, it stays put, it’s more durable, and you can wash and reuse them.

DON’T cheap out on brushes.
This may be controversial, but we would recommend you obtain your paint from a dedicated paint store instead of a paint department. A full blown paint store will have a wider variety of paint types available, depending on whether you need to paint drywall, wood, stucco, etc. They also tend to take more time and be a little fussier about color matching if you need to scrape a paint sample from an existing wall.
Use a paint conditioner. Most home improvement and paint stores will carry paint conditioner that will help your paint go on more smoothly and help eliminate brush and roller marks. Floetrol is a popular brand name for latex paints, and the companion product Penetrol is formulated for oil based paints.

On the other hand, time is a valuable commodity. Especially for larger painting projects, you may wish to hire a painting contractor to do the job for you. Contact the Daniels Team if you need recommendations!

Once you have invested in new paint, take the time to record or photograph the paint codes you or your painter used. That will make it easier to obtain more paint to recoat or touch up in the future.

Another possibly controversial issue: Many homeowners think it’s a good idea to keep unused paint, especially if they are preparing their home for sale. They think they are doing the new owners a favor. Not necessarily. Paint will deteriorate over time, especially if stored in the garage where it is subject to temperature fluctuations. And it’s not a good idea to keep a paint can that is mostly empty, dented, or covered with dried paint globs – it’s far more likely to dry out and become unusable quickly. But – if you have repainted recently and you have a can that’s mostly full and in good condition, then you can keep it for a year or so, preferably indoors. But do keep the paint codes as mentioned above.

Finally, if you have leftover paint to dispose of, use a paint hardener to solidify the paint first. Most sanitation departments and landfills will not accept wet paint.