You Painted The Room “That” Color?

Let me take this time now to apologize to the people that bought our first home.  Unless you had an infant and wanted to continue with the Baby Disney theme, you most likely had to remove the wallpaper and start again.  I figured it would save someone the trouble of having to decorate for a baby.  Now I know better, and I’m sorry.  You probably had a teenager that had to be bribed with expensive electronics and promises of redecorating before they would spend a night in that room.

Back then I knew nothing about neutral colors, let alone removing wallpaper or appealing to buyers.  After all, I spent a lot of time and good money decorating with paint and wallpaper, evidently no one had the nerve to tell me I should take it all down and repaint in neutral colors before selling.  I likely would have pitched a fit anyways.

But others have this problem.  I’m not the first person to spend money to decorate a home in a color scheme that is not neutral and then try and sell it that way.  If you’re lucky, somewhere along the way, someone will will work up the nerve to hint at it.  They’ll likely compliment you on your taste and carefully suggest that not very many people would have the nerve to paint a room “that color.”  Or, they may say “if your buyer has a baby, this room is ready to go.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about “ugly” colors or patterns (although it still gets the same result.)  Your home may have been featured on the cover of a magazine or received designer awards, but if the colors aren’t neutral, you just narrowed the already narrow pool of buyers.

Do you have to strip all that expensive wallpaper and repaint?  No.  You’ll eventually sell, but if you are in a place where time and money are so precious that you can’t afford the luxury of waiting or you need to move things along because no one has been interested, stick this on your list of action items.  Sure the buyer can change these things fairly easily, but when there’s so many homes on the market to choose from, why take on the extra work and expense when it’s faster, easier and cheaper to go check out the next house on the list?  Unfortunately for home sellers, that’s how buyers do things.