When it comes to home exteriors, blue is a great choice. It's also extremely versatile. Many shades of a blue trend toward gray, making them feel neutral, while still helping your home stand out from the rest. You can choose from a light blue or go darker with a navy exterior.
99% of the time, choose one neutral color
But what color is the undisputed heavyweight champ? It's white. Janet Anderson, a top real estate agent who sells properties 27% faster than average in Tracy, California, explains “white is very popular” because it provides your buyers with a blank canvas with which to work.
As for the rest of your house, cool and neutral wall colors are a big hit with buyers overall. Light blue bathrooms and taupe-colored living rooms were especially popular in homes that sold for more money. Meanwhile, homes with dark red- or brown-colored walls sold for as much as $2,310 less than expected.
Home sellers are often advised to slap on a fresh coat of paint before listing their properties, but they shouldn't overlook the impact of color. A Zillow analysis of more than 32,000 photos from sold residential properties finds specific colors can either boost or crimp a home's selling price.
Your actual home's worth isn't likely to be impacted by a garish paint job, or the paint of the house next door. The appraisal process is looking at the home value based on its' structural integrity and its square footage, among other aspects, and paint color really isn't part of how much the actual house is worth.
Lighter, neutral, and earthy tones are the best color for a smaller home. Brighter colors like off-white, light yellow, or grey are perfect for making your house look bigger than it is. Light blue and cream colors give small homes a cottage or beach look.
They used to say, “If you want to sell her, paint her yellow.” Today, a more scientific method of judging the effect of color on a house's salability shows otherwise: yellow houses sell for over $3,000 less.
In terms of resale value, data via Zillow indicates that “greige” exteriors can boost the selling price of a home. Remodeling site Fixr also cites white and gray to be the top exterior paint colors in their 2020 Paint & Color Trends Report.
White. If you drive around your neighborhood, it probably won't take long to find a white house. That's because white is the most common house color. It's the exterior paint color that 52% of home improvement experts recommend to homeowners trying to sell their homes.
Dark paint can also be more prone to peeling than lighter colors. Thinking about heat absorption, dark exteriors are always going absorb more sun energy than whites, creams, and other light shades, which are more reflective. This could mean higher cooling costs during the summer months.
The paint on black houses will blister and peel faster than a light color. This is because black paint heats up and cools down (expanding and contracting more than a light color) as it absorbs more rays from the sun. (One way to mitigate this problem is with conscientious preparation before painting.
Increase your home's value
Both interior and exterior painting are projects with a significant return-on-investment (ROI). On average nationally, painting both the inside and outside of your home yields a $4,000+ value bump. That's a 107% ROI for interior painting and a 55% ROI for exterior painting.
Choose light colors
Making the exterior of your home a light color is the best way to make your home look larger, brighter, and more inviting. Light colors such as white, ivory, pale gray, and sage green reflect higher amounts of light than dark colors, tricking the eye into perceiving the home as larger than it is.
The color that catches the human eye the most is either red or orange. Yellow is also a valid candidate, in some cases. Colors that are warm, bold, and bright are more eye-catching than others. Colors like red, orange, and yellow catch the human eye the most.
Appraisers don't look at the colors, interior or exterior, homes are sporting when determining their appraised values. A home's colors, just like its curtains and paintings, are subjective matters of taste, and appraisers don't evaluate taste when determining home values.
Painting the interior of the house helps with a clean and fresh look, sets the mood and can help highlight specific features. Buyers are particular about a few areas – the entrance, the kitchen and the bathrooms. The buyer does not want to update fixtures, paint walls and replace cabinets and counter tops.
A lighter field color will make it look larger; a darker color will visually shrink it. Lighter colors can also make a house look visually flimsy, while darker colors can give it a strong, solid appearance.
Home builders frequently buy paint in bulk, using favorite pale browns, light grays and warm- or cool-white hues in multiple homes.
'Greys are popular as you can use them to create a more complex colour scheme than with white and off-white shades,' said Oliver. 'They also offer a neutral, reduced-glare backdrop that either brings accent colours alive or allows them to create a sense of calm.
A good rule of thumb for a cohesive color palette is to use no more than 5 distinct colors throughout your home. In this case, a white, a neutral, and 3 colors.