Friday Fun…Oh, You Just Painted Your House?

Good morning, Kathy... most of our communities are HOA communities that have restrictions on colors you can use for your siding so the odds of making a mistake are low. I live in a community in Charlotte that is unique in that the houses are painted in every color one can imagine. When I built my home I had it painted yellow. When I repainted, I selected a hydrangea blue/violet. My next door neighbor's home is kelly green. We have pink houses, blue houses, violet houses... you name it, we have it. And we have no problems selling our homes here. It's a unique community.

I remember someone saying they just put new carpet in, and every buyer said they hated it. 

I guess it's better to get the realtor FIRST and let them recommend what to do and not to do.

That's one of the reasons that I always tell sellers to run things by me before they spend money doing them, haha.

That blue brought back a funny memory.  I was a stubborn old man back when I was young.  Wife piked color, and I painted the whole house before she saw it. Doghouse duty for me. 

Good morning Kathy,

I always try and visit with future sellers when they call and say I'm not listing now but in a few years so I can visit with them about decorating issues like this. Sometimes they call after they have done things and it can be okay or it can be just like your example!

I had a BLUE house listing that was a bear to sell Kathy Streib . It was such a bright, yet dark, blue that everyone knew it as "the Blue house". The owner was such a huge navy man that when you opened the front door you were greeted by a huge mural of a lighthouse on the shore. We did get it sold but it took a little time to do so.

It wasn't the whole exterior Kathy, it was the front door, which they repainted as soon as they moved in and the HOA made them return the bright orange door color they chose to the original white it was!

This happens quite often. I always ask...why didn't you call me before painting? 

Hello Kathy - another thing I often say:  the way we live is much different than the way we market a property when it is for sale. 

That said, no memory of poor paint choices immediately comes to mind although I do remember a post about pink houses that also makes me think of John Mellencamp.  Now, that's memorable.  

Hello Kathy,  we are not in a HOA and I wish we were, some of the colors on homes are just plan weird.

We continue to see unusual paint color selections.

Dolores commented on a yellow front door that she did not like.

Kathy, those baby blue homes in Denver are hard sellers!   We are not anywhere close to water!

My story was that we sold a yellow house and when I went by a week later to get my lock box I couldn’t find the house. The buyers had already painted it a deep plum color!

Hi Kathy,

We don't really have this issue in Sedona.   I do remember one gaudy home that had a bullet-shaped structure close to the highway and was a loud color.  It stood out like a sore thumb.  It never sold until they muted the color a couple of years later!

Kathy every home has a Buyer, even the odd ones.  You just need to pray an odd Buyer comes along sooner than later.

Many years ago, I painted my house Cape Cod Blue with white shutters and trim.  I was the only one with a home that color in the neighborhood.  Now, they are all around me.  Last year when I painted once again, I thought about painting it Sage Green with white trim.  My kids nixed the idea.

Can't remember anyone painting the outside of a home before selling without talking with me first.  I have run into some really bad inside paint jobs.  One was a younger man who bought his first condo from us years ago.  A few years later he was ready to go bigger and said - oh and I painted the living room etc already.  Hmmm. Ok.  When I went there he had painted the rooms along with the flooring underneath it.  It was a very bad paint job. He was devastated when I said we'd have to replace the carpet.   But......it all worked out in the end. He promised to hire a painter next time!!