Have you ever wondered what stories potential buyers create when they see a home for sale? Perhaps they think a blue-painted property looks calming and inviting, but a home covered in white paint may look like it has lots of potential. In both cases, color determines which “genre” a house’s story falls into.
Depending on the palette of colors used for your home, you can encourage someone to make a bid you can’t refuse. When you better understand how buyers respond to colors, you know which changes to consider making to your home’s exterior and interior to capture someone’s eye.
Here are a few tips for using color to ensure your home’s selling potential stays high.
Use Outdoor Lighting
If you have smart outdoor lighting, use it to your advantage when the sun goes down. After all, it’s not unusual for buyers to schedule evening and night tours. Landscape lighting paints your home in a new light, accentuating unique features that may go unnoticed during daylight hours.
A smart landscape lighting transformer gives you even more possibilities. Shifting the color scheme every hour, for example, treats buyers to a different array of pigments, contrasts, and moods. Two different potential buyers may see your home lit up in two different ways, but effective color combinations make them feel the same desire to want to learn more about your property.
Consider How Light Affects Colors
You’ve likely bought clothes, curtains, furniture, and similar items because of their appealing colors. Then you get home and reconsider because the shade doesn’t look the same as it did in the store or on the website. Chances are, it’s the color temperature that makes you consider returning the item.
When picking out paint, think about your home’s light bulbs. For example, a hue that looks beautiful under soft white light may take on a yellow tint when applied to your walls. Simply changing your light bulbs and the color they give off may make you fall in love with the paint color all over again.
For daylight hours, consider which directions rooms face. Pale colors work great in south-facing rooms that get abundant sunshine, and neutral shades look brighter and warmer in the morning light. Opt for neutral colors with a warm base for west- and north-facing rooms.
Think Smaller
Sometimes, it’s the small details that make a work of art pop. Boost your home’s selling potential by first focusing on accenting painting rather than covering entire walls or ceilings in paint.
Inside your home, floors and other large surfaces work better as neutral backdrops rather than statement pieces. Remember, you want buyers to easily envision themselves living in your home, and adding a few accent colors here and there helps them see the opportunities that await.
Limit Boldness to Doors and Shutters
You may find it hard to resist injecting a bit of boldness into your color scheme. It’s okay to let your creativity run wild, but precision is key when you want to attract potential buyers. Splash a bold color onto your front door or shutters, but only your front door or shutters.
If you want to add vibrant colors to other parts of your house, think about what’s going to make the buyer’s life easier when they move in. For instance, adding an energetic pink color to an accessory is fine as long as the accessory isn’t permanent. If the buyer doesn’t like the color, knowing they can easily get rid of the accessory when they move in could keep them interested in your listing.
What story does your home’s current color scheme tell potential buyers? If you don’t like the “plot,” change the color to give your house the potential to become a bestseller!