First Impression is Key!

Preparing your home to sell can certainly be a daunting task, and most sellers don’t know where to start. I suggest you start where your buyers will start, with a first impression. It’s difficult to be objective about your own home, but there are some tricks you can try.

Jump in your car, and drive to an entrance to your neighborhood. Try to imagine that you are buyers considering purchasing a home there. Drive through the neighborhood, and take note of the conditions of all the homes, not just the ones that are for sale. What are the features of the homes you find most attractive? What makes some of the homes less appealing?


After you have figured out the components of good curb appeal, drive by your own home, and continue down the street. Then, drive by it from the other direction. How does your home compare? Are there changes that could be made to improve that “first impression?” Perhaps there is too much overgrown landscaping, or the yard is too bare? Is the exterior color attractive, and does the home look well-maintained?


I had a staging client who was instructed to change the mint green exterior of their home. They weren’t sure what color to paint it, and it’s so difficult to choose from a small color swatch. I suggested they tour areas of similarly priced homes, and decide what colors they found to be the most popular and the most attractive. The result, when they painted their home, was dramatic!


To be as objective as possible, try to see your home and neighborhood through the eyes of the buyers. You don’t have to have the most attractive home in your neighborhood to get it sold. But, wouldn’t it be nice if buyers pulled up in front of your home, and were excited to see inside?

Interior Paint: The New Neutrals!

If you are planning on selling your home, you might want to consider repainting the interior. Painting is one of the best ways to change a space dramatically, at a relatively low cost.

But, the days of painting every room white are gone. An all-white house can easily be forgotten, since there is nothing to stand out in the mind of buyers. A perfect example of the power of paint would be in the condo or townhouse market. Since most units are identical, often the only thing that can make one unit more memorable than the rest is the color of the walls.

The question is what color paint do we use? The reason white was thought to be the best color is that white will go with everything, allowing the buyers to move right in. However, white is not very warm or inviting. Today’s savvy buyers are looking for more, and the answer is to go with other neutrals. Technically, the only true neutrals are black, white, and gray, which do not appear on the color wheel. The “new” neutrals are attained by mixing opposite colors on the color wheel. They range from beige, or tan, all the way to chocolate brown or slate gray, with a large array of shades in between.

It is recommended that for small spaces, you stick with the light to medium value of these colors to create a more spacious-feeling area. And for those large, cold rooms, choose the darkest value of these colors to create a warmer and cozier space.

Creating contrast between wall color and trim color is a wonderful way to highlight architectural detail. Just be sure to keep the trim color the same throughout the home, to retain a sense of conformity. Painting different rooms’ different colors is acceptable, as long as you don’t stray too far in your color choices. That is where the neutrals are such good choices, because they do well together. All paint manufacturers offer a line of neutrals to take away that guesswork. As a home stager, one of my services is to assist sellers with their paint choices. There have been many homes, which after months of sitting on the market, sold quickly with just a simple change of wall color.

So, visit your neighborhood paint store and acquaint yourself with the “new” neutrals.