Today I was with clients walking through a bread and butter home in a desirable neighborhood in Mill Valley, California-average home, some very nice upgrades, decent yard, partial views, all in all, a pretty decent deal priced at $1.2 million dollars (I know this last part sounds crazy to those of you outside of the Bay Area). But the thing that struck me (and a few other agents I spoke with) was the alarming and unsettling use of paint. The home had that intoxicating smell of new paint, but the colors used made me nauseous. In the brochure, the agent described the colors as "designer" colors. But, among the seven or eight different colors used in the home's interior, not one of them was remotely acceptable. Even the baseboards were painted red. Needless to say, my clients hated the home. They know that paint is just paint and that the home was priced well. But, nonetheless, they just didn't like the house. I am pretty sure if the home had a more accessible color scheme, my clients would have felt very differently about that home because they ended up buying a home down the street that lacked the views and upgrades.
Below are some thoughts on color and my subjective estimation of their desirability in the marketing process.
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Green is often mentioned when people are asked about their favorite color. It represents nature, environment, health, good luck, renewal, youth, vigor, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, misfortune. It means lots of things to people from different cultures. As a home color, green is generally not the greatest choice. Grade = C
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Orange is a combination of yellow and red. Orange is considered a warm color like red and expresses energy. It has luminous qualities and can invoke memories of fall leaves, pumpkins, and Halloween. It symbolizes balance, warmth, enthusiasm, and demands attention. Muted hues of orange have a long history of prominence in the interior designer paint palette. Grade = B
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Purple represents royalty, spirituality, nobility, ceremony, mystery, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, arrogance, mourning. Purple is considered an exotic color and should be avoided as an exterior color and is sometimes recommended to be used sparingly inside the home. Not my favorite by a longshot. Grade = C-
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Red is the color that we pay the most attention to. It is the warmest and most energetic color in the spectrum. We associate red with love, danger, desire, speed, strength, violence, anger, stop signs, and blood. It can evoke a fight-or-flight response, raise blood pressure, and make the heart beat faster. There is a reason that it is not the color of choice for psychiatric wards, prisons, or hospitals. I like it sometimes. Grade = B- (if used judiciously)
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White is what we see when all colors come together in perfect balance. It represents reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, birth, winter, good, sterility, and marriage. When it comes to marketing homes, no color compares to the pure, clean, and salable qualities white brings to the table. Off-white works just about anywhere inside the home. Hint: paint it off-white, beige, taupe, kahki, etc.! Grade = A
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Yellow represents joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, philosophy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard, spirituality and inspiration. Despite some of these cited emotive responses to yellow, it may be one of the most common interior and exterior colors of homes (when you include the shades of beige as a derivative of yellow). Yellow(ish) exteriors appeal to lots of folks, if not too bright. Grade = B+
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Black is the absence of light (and color). It represents power, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, mourning, and death. I understand that back in the Sixties some Rolling Stones fans painted their homes black. I sometimes see teenagers' rooms painted black. This is not an advisable choice for interior or exterior paint when you are trying to sell your home. Grade = F
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