When you put your home on the market, you want it to sell quickly and receive the highest offers. Choosing the right colors for your walls when you stage it for viewings can help. While you may love the color scheme of your home, prospective homeowners with different tastes may struggle to see themselves in it. Repainting your walls with the right colors can make your house feel like a blank canvas that prospective homeowners can envision themselves moving into.
Zillow, one of the top real estate listing websites, has researched the impact that wall colors have on home sales. Their Paint Color Analysis found that certain wall colors can help your home sell for $2,000 to $5,000 more than comparable homes. We’ve put together this guide, using their research and our insider knowledge, to help you choose the right colors for your home when you put it on the market.
Best Wall Colors for Selling Your Home
Prospective homeowners are attracted to homes with cool, neutral colors on the walls that are light and inviting but not bland or sterile. The best colors to choose are:
Blues
Blue tones are universally loved. According to Zillow’s research, light blue tones in the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, and dining room increase home sales prices.
Grays
Grey tones are nearly as well-liked as blue. A cool, light grey is another good option for the walls in your bedrooms, bathrooms and dining room.
Greiges
Greige is a cross between grey and beige. This color has become a popular beige alternative, now seen as dated and cheap. Choosing a greige tone is the best option for your living room. Zillow’s research found that taupe and oatmeal, similar neutral colors, are also excellent choices for the living room.
Wall Colors to Avoid When Selling Your Home
The most important walls to repaint when staging your home are walls with taste-specific colors. You may love having a red kitchen or forest green bathroom, but many prospective homeowners are turned off by rich colors like these. Be sure to avoid:
Dark colors
Dark colors like burgundy, navy, dark brown, and black make a room feel smaller and closed off. Prospective buyers who dislike the color may also be concerned about the challenge and cost of painting over such a saturated color.
Bright colors
Bright colors like orange and yellow may make your home feel warmer, but they can also make it feel cheap or less sophisticated to the eyes of a prospective homeowner.
Gender-specific colors
Pinks, lavenders and other gendered tones can make it harder for many prospective buyers to envision themselves in the space.
Whites
White may seem like the ultimate neutral to create a clean slate, but it can make your home feel sterile and unwelcoming to prospective homeowners. The most important shade of white to avoid is Linen white, or off white. This is the color used in most rental apartments, and that association has made it a big turnoff when it’s used in homes.
If you need help getting your home prepared to go on the market, give us a call! The professional painters on our team at Franklin Painting can transform your home into a beautiful blank canvas for prospective buyers.
Frank Campanelli, the esteemed founder of Franklin Painting LLC, has been leading the company since 1986. He takes immense pride in the stellar reputation his dedicated team has built by consistently delivering top-notch service to each customer.
