Colors to Paint Your Home To Sell It Fast

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When you’re selling your home, you want it to sell fast and for the most money possible. That’s why it makes sense to be smart about staging your home, do whatever you can to improve your curb appeal, and, find colors to paint your home so you can sell it fast and for more money.

According to a new survey from Zillow.com, one of the paint colors that will help sell your home? Painting your kitchen yellow.

Painting your kitchen

We got this paint-your-kitchen-a-yellow-color advice from one of the Realtors we’d interviewed when we were putting our house on the market. At that time we’d just fully upgraded our kitchen–with granite countertops, new hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances.

I should add that this was the second time we’d tried to sell our home that year. The first time around that Realtor made no comment about the paint colors we’d chosen. This included a light green in the kitchen and a dark green in the adjacent dining room.

Don’t paint a dark room a dark paint color

In retrospect that first Realtor should have said something for sure. You see, our home was built into the side of the hill. So while you entered the front of the house on the first level, you exited into the backyard from the second level.

That meant that the kitchen and dining room were, essentially, underground. Painting them a darker color probably made a dark part of our home look even darker.

So when that first Realtor couldn’t sell our house, we took the house off the market for six months. And in that time we brought in a new Realtor and took every piece of advice they had to offer.

How a new paint color made all the difference

For starters, we were told that the green would be a turnoff. “Paint the walls yellow,” the Realtor advised. “People like yellow kitchens.”

Boy, was he right. We listed our house on a Friday, and had multiple offers by Sunday night.

colors to paint your home to sell
My yellow kitchen after our Realtor suggest we change the paint color in this part of our home from green to yellow.

Best colors to paint your home to sell it

According to a survey from the Zillow, when it came to kitchens, those painted yellow sold for the most. Zillow analyzed photos from nearly 50,000 sold homes from around the country to see how certain room type and paint color combinations impacted their sale price.

Of all the colors Zillow analyzed, homes with yellow kitchens, often in hues of creamy or wheat yellow, yielded the highest sale premium. That amounted to $1,360 above expected values.

Conversely, there are some paint colors that could actually deter buyers. Hint: don’t paint your dining room purple or your living room orange. Or, if these are the colors that they currently are, paint them something neutral.

No paint is a bad sign

Here’s an interesting paint-related deterrent. If there isn’t any paint on your walls, that sends a bad message to would-be buyers.

What it says is this: the homeowners don’t care enough about the house to invest in a paint job. This could lead buyers to wonder what else in the home might be lacking.

Paint is an affordable improvement

Here is how the experts explain it. A fresh coat of paint is an easy and affordable way to improve a home’s appearance before listing. Not only does it make your home look better in pictures but also you can literally put in your listing, “Freshly painted.”

To get the biggest bang for your buck, stick with paint colors that have mass appeal. You want to do this so you can attract as many potential buyers to your listing as possible.

This article explains which national retailers sell Benjamin Moore paint.

Paint colors with mass appeal

So, what are the best colors to paint your home and appeal to the most buyers? Warm neutrals like yellow or light gray are stylish and clean.

They signal that the home is well cared for, or that previous owners had an eye for design that may translate to other areas within the house. Basically, they are paint colors that “paint” a positive message for your home.

Trying paint before buying

I just learned about this company called Samplize. It sends you 12 inch by 12 inch “sticky notes” of various paint colors. So, rather than taping up those little paint tabs that you can get in a paint store, you can use the Samplize samples in a big area on your walls.

Right now, Samplize has paint samples from four paint companies:

  1. PPG
  2. Benjamin Moore
  3. Sherwin Williams
  4. Farrow and Ball

We’re thinking of painting our house soon. So I ordered three different greige samples from Samplize. This will help me determine which one I like the best.

Full disclosure: Samplize is not free. You’ll pay $5.95 for each sticky note of color. However, that’s way cheaper than buying a small can of custom-mixed paint to test on the walls.

This article explains Samplize paint samples.

Best and worst colors to paint your home to sell

Now that we’ve talked in broad strokes (pun intended) about paint color, let’s talk specifics. Here I’ve outlined the five common areas of the home where you might paint. This includes the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, bedrooms and living rooms. Then, I’ve offered suggestions (based on sales data) on the best colors to paint your home to sell it fast and for the most money.

Colors to paint your home to sell: yellow kitchen

A creamy or wheat-colored yellow on your kitchen walls could net you, on average, $1,360 more when you sell your home.

Colors to paint your home to sell: tan bathroom

A tan, oatmeal or beige-colored bathroom can boost your selling price by $283.

Colors to paint your home to sell: green bedroom

Green is considered to be a calming color, perfect for a bedroom. It can help you sell your home for more as well. Homes with a bedroom painted in light green or khaki green sold for $1,332 more than similar homes with bedrooms painted other colors.

Colors to paint your home to sell: purple dining room

This stat caught me by surprise. I would never paint my dining room mauve, eggplant or lavender.

Yet Zillow research found those purple dining rooms to be hot sellers. Supposedly, this paint color in your home could add $1,122 to the selling price. Go figure!

Colors to paint your home to sell: gray living room

Here we have advice that says gray paint color on living room walls helps you to sell your home for more money. Check out my article on my favorite gray color called greige.

Technically, when it comes to gray paint, the research found that buyers like dove gray or light gray. Homes with this hue on living room walls sold for $1,104 more.

What color house is hardest to sell?

When it comes to painting the outside of your house, you may have your favorite colors. However, buyers do not.

Primarily, buyers do not want to purchase a home that needs to be repainted. We’re not talking about a home that needs a touch up. I’m talking about bright, bold colors that make your house stand out — and not in a good way.

Here are some paint colors that could scare buyers away:

  • Orange
  • Pink
  • Purple
  • Black
  • Dark Brown

If this describes the outside of your house, then it might make sense to give it a fresh coat of a neutral color before putting it on the market.

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