
When buyers are impressed with your home’s curb appeal, they’ll walk through your front door with a growing feeling of ‘‘I could enjoy living here.’’
The next thing buyers take in is the paint job. Bright yellow walls with a salmon accent may look good in the House Beautiful magazine, but this won’t sell your home. Giving your home a fresh coat of off white low luster paint will keep the ball rolling. No one can fault you for going white. Even wannabe decorators will look at a white wall with anticipation.
Sellers on one home painted all the rooms in the house a different bright color. The effect was bizarre, but they refused to repaint the home. They felt that a buyer with their tastes would come along and buy it. Unfortunately, such a buyer didn’t come along. After the house sat vacant for months on the market, with the owners making mortgage payments, they did get an offer. The sellers ended up selling for what they owed, losing not only equity but also about $7,000 in mortgage payments while the house was empty.
By the way, when you take down the pictures, knick-knacks, and three generations of family photos to paint, leave them down and box them up. You’re going to move anyway, and you don’t want to distract the buyers from imagining their stuff on the clean white walls. Actually, anything that prevents buyers from imagining themselves owning the house should go into storage. Most common objects are trophies, hobby display cases, awards, and antiques.

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