Does Painting Increase Home Value?

There are lots of questions you’re bound to have when you’re selling your home, and one of the most common we come across is, “how much value does painting add to a house?”

The answer depends on a lot of things. The size of your home, the condition of your property, and the standard of the paint job will all determine the increase in value, but the one thing you can be sure of is that you’ll see an increase in the value of painting houses before selling.

And even if you’re not selling, a fresh paint job brings your home to life.

Once you’ve decided to take this step and increase the value of your home, it’s time to think about where to paint. Beyond walls, there are lots of places to decorate with a fresh lick of paint which will have a dramatic impact on the look and feel of your home.

From exterior painting to baseboards and cabinets, a professional paint job can do something truly special for your home…and the Oahu Pro Painters team has helped many homeowners transform their property into something prospective buyers really love.

Today, let’s take a look at some of the most important places to consider painting before you put your home on the market.

How Much Does Paint Increase the Value of My Home?

You might be hesitant to start a big repainting project, especially for the exterior of your home. You may be wondering, “does painting my house increase its value, really?”. The answer to how a fresh coat of paint affects property value isn’t so simple. There are a variety of cost and benefit factors to consider. 

• How big is your home? This is the first thing to bear in mind since this likely isn’t a paint job you can pull off by yourself. You’ll need enough paint and workers to make the necessary home improvements. 
• How much of your home needs repainting? If it’s just parts of the interior that need paint, you’ll have a very different final outcome from an exterior paint job. Repainting the exterior will have the highest return on investment, but will be more costly. You might just consider a fresh coat of paint on the front door to raise curb appeal. 
• What paint colors and type are you using? High-quality paint in the right paint colors will have a great effect on the home’s value. Shades of blue and gray tend to do best with buyers, and while quality paint might be pricier, it comes with the potential for a significantly higher offer. 
• What is the cost of labor and materials? Before hiring a painting company, discuss what they include in their fees. Ensure that inspection, preparation, cleaning, and painting are all part of the deal. A paint job can also require materials other than just paint, which quality painters will provide. 
• What is the siding of your house made of? Though you can paint any siding, the material will have a big impact on your home’s value. Metal is generally the easiest and cheapest to paint, while cement is the opposite. Consider whether you need to replace your siding or if you’re happy as is. 

Why Does Painting My House Increase Its Value?

Home improvements, like repainting, come with a myriad of benefits once your house is on the market. Investing in repainting can boost your home value by increasing curb appeal and demonstrating to buyers that this is a well-cared for space.

Make a Strong First Impression

Many buyers have already formed an impression of a potential home before even walking through the door. The exterior of your house can say a lot about the property value, so keeping up with consistent home improvements, even the minor ones, can do a lot. This is why a freshly painted siding, or even a fresh coat of paint on the front door, can do wonders for your home’s value.

Buyers will also notice the material of your siding and the paint on the exterior. Choose neutral toned paint colors, since buyers can be turned off by too much paint or choppy colors that just don’t go.

Worn Out Siding Sends a Bad Signal

After years of enduring the elements, the paint on your siding panels may very well be chipping off. This is natural, but it gives your home worn look homebuyers dislike. Buyers will often view the imperfections of a home as things they’ll have to fix themselves and having the very first thing they see be damaged is no way to start.

Painting the siding of your house can therefore serve you well when it comes to the value of your home. By putting your best foot forward, you are sending the message that the interior of your house is just as beautiful as the exterior, giving buyers an extra push up those front steps.

Build Trust Between Yourself and Buyers

While a good first impression is critical to get buyers in the door, it also convinces them that you’ve invested in taking care of your home all these years. Home improvements are more than just a cosmetic feature — they build trust between the seller and the buyer.

The greatest fear of any buyer is that, once they buy the home, they’ll have to deal with a myriad of issues before they can settle in. A freshly painted house assures them that you’ve been a good homeowner and cared for the appearance and foundation of your home. They can be confident that the house will be worth their money.

Remove Hazardous or Harmful Paint

Sometimes repainting is more than just a cosmetic change to upgrade home value. Older homes have often been painted with environmentally unsafe paint composed partly of lead or other toxic materials. When painting like this chips, it not only causes harm to the surrounding lawn or backyard, but also becomes a hazard for yourself, your family, and anyone who enters your home (including potential buyers!).

Today, painters use safe, eco-friendly paint that avoids dangerous chemicals and fumes. By replacing the older paint, you protect the inhabitants of the home while simultaneously giving your house the clean, well-maintained look it deserves before it goes on the market.

Rooms to Prioritize

Sometimes, time or budget constraints won't allow for total interior repainting. If this sounds like your situation, don’t worry! Prioritize the rooms that need it, particularly the kitchen, bathrooms, entryways, and foyer. These are the rooms that not only see the most natural wear and tear but also have common color palettes that don’t need to be so personally tailored to the homeowner’s tastes

Don’t focus so much on bedrooms, since the inhabitants of these rooms will often have their personal preferences that you can’t easily predict. A mix of light and dark is popular for kitchens, and light blues and off-whites are common for bathrooms. For entryways and foyers, it’s often best to stick with light, neutral paint colors that brighten the space.

When picking out paint colors, remember that the color palette can hugely affect the appearance of the size and light of the room. Smaller rooms will look much larger in lighter shades, while bigger rooms can handle darker tones.

How Does Exterior Paint Increase Home Value?

Does painting the house exterior increase value once your house is on the market? Absolutely! Curb appeal is a huge factor in selling a home. The exterior of your property is the first thing people see when they visit the property and the first thing they see on listings online.

It’s easy to scroll past tired, old, and scruffy-looking homes, but harder to ignore homes with incredible paint jobs that make the most of the property’s features. Choose the right color scheme and high-quality paint, along with professional painters like our team at Oahu Pro Painters, and you can create a home that people can envision spending their lives in.

What’s more, a good paint job also helps protect your property from the elements. From water damage to mold, staying on top of the paint job on fascia and woodwork maintains your property’s structural integrity and increases value overall.

Once you’ve repainted, your property value will increase alongside your curb appeal. With the right paint colors on your exterior, the home’s value can increase by as much as $6,000. With the average cost of exterior painting nearing $3,000, a paint job ends up being a very worthwhile endeavor.

So if you want to know “does painting the exterior of a house add value?”, then the answer is yes!

How Does Interior Paint Increase Home Value?

So does painting interior house add value as much as painting the exterior does? Yes! Freshly painted bathrooms alone can increase your home’s value by $5,000. If that sounds impressive, consider the effect of a complete interior repainting, which gives another well-deserved home value boost. Painting the entire interior of your home generally costs below $2,000, while the return on investment is exceptional.

When painting the interior of your home, make sure you’re choosing colors that appeal to homebuyers, not just your own personal tastes. This improves your chances of getting an offer significantly since it enables buyers to visualize themselves living in the space. A kitchen with high-contrasting colors can win you up to $1,500 on the market, which is nothing to turn your nose up at.

If you do choose to paint the bedrooms, you can get away with slightly darker blues or medium-toned grays. However, sticking to lighter colors in living rooms and bathrooms will be much more attractive to potential buyers.

Kitchen Cabinets

Renovating the kitchen is a common way to increase the value of a home, but not everybody can afford a new kitchen.

So, does painting cabinets increase home value, instead? Absolutely it can.

A quality paint job makes old kitchens feel new. As long as your cupboards are in good condition, professional cabinet painters can strip those cabinets down to the bare wood if necessary, remove tired, faded, or flaking paint, and apply a fresh coat that makes your kitchen look brand new.

Choose neutral or universally popular colors and show potential buyers that, should they buy your home, they won’t need to renovate the kitchen any time soon. It’s an affordable way to ensure more people can see themselves living in your home.

Bedroom

If your current bedroom is dark and soothing or has that fun pop of color you love so much, remember that not everyone else does. Your taste is yours, but buyers should be able to picture themselves living in this space, which they may not be able to do if it’s currently boasting an electric blue paint job.

Opt instead for some softer toned blues, grays, and beiges to increase your home’s value. A clean coating of these easy-on-the-eyes beautiful colors is much more likely to appeal to buyers and won’t distract them from the room itself.

Bathroom

When it comes to bathrooms, aim to create a soothing, serene atmosphere. Though you might personally like the clean look, a completely stark white might appear a bit sterile and over-sanitized. To avoid this, go with some light color instead. Creams, light grays, and periwinkle blues often do best in bathrooms.

Remember that many homebuyers love the look of brighter accessories, like towels or rugs, in their bathrooms, so a neutral atmosphere is a must. Paint your walls in a color that will complement these fun extras.

Baseboards

You may not think about baseboards very much, but the moment you give them a fresh lick of paint, you see just how much of an impact they have on your property. These boards are usually made of vinyl or wood, and over time, the paintwork will fade, chip, or become dirty because of their proximity to the ground.

You should be sure to repaint any moldings on your ceiling, banisters, or other joints and wooden features across your home that you might otherwise forget about. Choose a color that contrasts nicely with the walls and you’ll create a professional finish that makes your property feel luxurious and welcoming.

Oahu Pro Painters can certainly help you find the right paint and colors for jobs like this, and we know what features to look out for that many home decorators miss!

Walls

OK, so we’ve reached the obvious one…the walls! There are lots of paint colors that add value to houses and other residential properties, and they’re usually pretty neutral.

In the kitchen, some common colors to choose from are gray and light blue. They’re comfortable yet bright, and they also help rooms feel much bigger. They’re also nice and clean, and people can easily imagine their furniture and style in the room without being confused or bogged down by dark or bold colors.

Warm, beige, and off-white are great for living rooms and bedrooms, again giving people the feeling of space and allowing them to imagine their furniture and designs in the property.

On occasion, there may be a good reason to paint a feature wall, and on other occasions, it might be more appropriate to paint walls with a nice, solid, off-white color. Just avoid controversial colors and keep it simple!

Choosing the Right Colors

A new paint job alone is already a great step in the right direction when preparing to sell your house, but the right paint colors are just as important as the quality of your paint! With that in mind, it’s important to know exactly what to paint in what shades and tones to maximize the value you’re getting out of your painting project. Below are some recommendations based on current market trends:

• Front door: Dark is your friend (for once!). Black and charcoal gray are popular choices when making a first impression.
• Kitchen: Steer clear of reds and oranges, and opt instead for tuxedo-style cabinets that feature colors like dark navy, black, white, or creams.
• Entryways: Keep it light! Remember, this is the first part of your house’s interior that people see.
• Dining and Living Rooms: Warm neutrals and lighter tones, such as tans, light peach, and beige are great here. Dump the darker browns and yellow undertones that drive your home value down!
• Bedrooms: Neutral tans and light blues are great here, though darker shades can work depending on the size of the room. Stay far away from overly bright or jarring paint colors.
• Bathrooms: Periwinkle blue is particularly popular, though light creams are acceptable as well.
• Exterior: Stick with the neutrals. No bright yellows here!

We’ll Help You Bring In Prospective Buyers With a Professional Paint Job

At Oahu Pro Painters, we’ve got the years of experience that’s needed to make the right decisions when decorating a house that’s on the market. We know what colors sell, we know what colors are best in each room, and we know how to bring out the most of a property with high-quality paint.

Get in touch and one of our local painters will be happy to discuss your needs, and show you how we can increase the value of your property and get more prospective buyers through the door. Call us today at 808-427-1186!