Real Estate Blog - Before you paint your house...

Home : Blogs : Susan Walters : Susan Says - Comments on Ann Arbor Real Estate, and Life

Before you paint your house...

historical painted house My brother bought a fixer-upper late last year and is now in the process of doing the exterior of the house. Among the biggest decisions to be made is what color to paint the exterior. It is currently pale pink. I know, I know. But why do you think he got it for $150,000 or so and it immediately appraised at $216,000? People! Exterior paint does not cost $66,000!!!

Well, after at few attempts at slapping a quart on here and a quart or there, he was directed to a website that does the work for you. You can figuratively paint a house that may or may not be like yours and see the hopefully harmonious and favorable results without so much as lifting a quart OR a paintbrush.

I loved this site, mostly because it showed the errors of so many homeowner's color choices. Fortunately for me, I never strayed beyond the brown/green choices or I would be there still. I will not consider painting an exterior of a property, great or small, without first consulting a site like this:

www.thisoldhousepaints.com/visualizer/index.html

Enjoy!

Posted by Susan Walters on 05/17/2008 10:53 PM

Comments (11)

fixeruppers, tlc, handyman special, exterior paint colors, investors, flipping houses

This post has been included in Michigan Information Washtenaw County, MI Information Ann Arbor, MI Information
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: Keller Williams 'Rainers
Post is included in group: Michigan Real Estate
Post is included in group: Flipping Houses for Dummies!
Post is included in group: Posts to Localism

11 Comments on Before you paint your house...

MAY

2008

Thanks for sharing the site. I put in favorites for future clients in need of painting and looked around as our cottage is dull and boring, gray and white. I was going to go for maize and blue....yea go figure !

Oh, Missy, I know you are kidding, but plug in a maize and blue scheme on the exterior of any of the houses - YUK. I was surprised at what a difference a dark color with light trim made rather than a dark color with a medium trim - so much more "money" in the low-contrast look!

MAY

2008

OK, that is a pretty cool site and I had to laugh when we let our son play on the site. His choices still were not so good. He is six, but he is also color blind! Turns out pink is a nice light grey to him.

Thanks Susan,

This is a great tool. Thanks so much for sharing. It will be nice to pass this on to customers.

JUL

2008

Oooo, love it! And how fun is it to play with the paint colors. I will share this with listing clients as well as friends!

JUL

2008

Susan- Good reference site. Sherwin-Williams has a pretty nice interactive site as well. Although, I believe that it is primarily for interiors.

JUL

2008

Hi Susan... this is a great site to know about. I will definitely recommend it to clients and friends. A picture is worth a thousand words!

JUL

2008

Thanks to all of you who have responded - I hope I don't owe my brother/his realtor a referral fee on this too!

JUL

2008

Thanks for the info. I have a program that's from Better Homes and Garden. It lets you play around with the colors interiors/exteriors, tile styles, wall textures and drive way styles. My husbands clients absolutely love this. It saves the time and headaches.

What a great site -- Thanks for sharing this!

www.kathytorline.com

AUG

2008

Thanks Roxanne and Kathy - I passed on the info for both sites to a buyer who knows they need to paint soon after closing - they recorded the information. Beats the heck out of a lot of quarts of paint, standing back, and waiting.... :)

This blog does not allow anonymous comments