Paint Your Home Before Placing On Market

After 30 years of painting and fixing up homes, I’ve learned that most people simply hate to paint.  But it is a well known fact that painting a home can have the maximum effect for a comparatively low investment when compared with other home improvements.  Most people think about painting only as a last resort but this is the worse area of your home to ignore if you are planning to place it on the market for sale.

There are many books on this subject and countless TV programs which endorse the idea of painting a house before trying to sell, but this is still an area most of us would like to ignore.  Most rationalize that the new home owners will want to chose their own colors anyway after they move in.   This can be a very costly mistake since in reality most home shoppers are looking for the home that is in “move-in” condition and doesn’t require any work.  Lets face it, today with so many homes for sale, the savvy homeowner wants the shopper to remember their home and seriously consider it on that first visit.  If not, there probably will not be a second visit or an offer to purchase.

There are some simple home improvement painting tips that can help a home owner with his painting job.  One of the most time consuming tasks associated with painting a house is ‘cutting in’.  If you can master this job, not only will it speed up your entire house painting job but it will make it look professionally done as well.  Many people think painting is an easy job and they don’t appreciate the challenges of even painting a single room.  For example, walls and ceilings are almost never the same color, co the painter must has to paint the very top of the wall without smearing paint onto the ceiling.  This is what is known as ‘cutting in’ and is easily the most time consuming part of painting any room. 

Even the professionals recognize the benefit of using masking tape on the surface you want to protect.  You’ll find the standard blue colored painter’s tape in just about any home improvement store.  The tape is made to be easily removed and it will speed up any paint job.  The mistake that many new painters make is when using masking tape, they feel they can now just slop that paint on the wall as quickly as possible.  Again, another wrong assumption on their parts.  You should still hold the paint brush at the proper angle and ‘cut in’ by using just the tip of the brush for best results.  This is the best technique to use along baseboards as well as around windows.  In time, with enough practice you might be able to ‘cut-in’ rather then tape all areas.  When you reach this level of skill you’ll find yourself flying through your paint jobs. 

Regardless of the time and effort needed though, painting your home before placing it on the market just makes good sense.