A couple of days go I was looking at a house with some buyers. It was a nice house but we were all kind of put off by the olive green living room walls. The house is empty and most of the rooms are painted in dark earth tones. I was imagining how my dark red leather love seat would look in that living room.
The olive green walls were done in a semi gloss paint which is difficult to paint over especially when using a lighter color.
Most people can see beyond the paint colors in the rooms but in the back of their minds they are thinking about how they will need to paint before they can move in or are wondering if they can live with the olive green walls and the red sofa for a few weeks or months until they have time to paint. In my own home I have a guest room that is painted mostly red. I love it but I would change the color if I were to put my house on the market. I would paint it real estate beige. It is a wonderful color for rooms especially rooms in historic homes. White is just too sterile, and almost screams apartment and those first time home buyers are probably sick to death of white walls by now.
Real estate beige is like white though it comes in many shades. Use a light shade, and don't use a semi gloss paint. I recently used real estate beige myself on a room that I had not decided what to do with. It had to be painted because I couldn't stand looking at it anymore and I had repaired the lath and plaster walls. It is now a bedroom and the color looks wonderful with anything that I put in that room.
We call it real estate beige because it is often recommended by Realtors and builders use it in the model homes. Trust me beige makes a home much more salable than olive green does and it is worth the investment.
T,
I had the opportunity to preview a home that had been on the market for over 9 months without any offers. The preview was given by the Seller who was considering if he should extend the listing with his present agent who he liked or go with someone else. He called me because of my 21 years of success in his neighborhood. Also I suspect that he wanted a free point of view.
The home was great but its major flaw was Horrible polarizing colors. As we walked through I asked him about it. He quickly pointed out that he loved the strong colors and that his agent had no problem with them. I asked him if the agent had made an offer. A week later I saw that the home was back on the market with the same agent. Some 6 months later the home did sell some $50,000 less than list price and about $30,000 below what he easily could have gotten if he would have painted those horrible walls.
A couple I know bought a house in Minneapolis for $50,000 less than comps because each room looked like a different easter egg color.
On the other hand, I’m getting very tired of the realtor’s beige in my apartment because it reads yellow in some light. personally, I’d prefer if it had a gray base.
Hillary – it comes in several shades. On the room I did I avoided the pink and yellow tones.