Preparing Your Edmonton Home for Sale

Preparing Your Edmonton Home for Sale The Paint & Staging Mistakes That Kill the Deal: Walls Revived

I'm back with Leann Ebert from Walls Revived and today we're going to be talking a little bit about how to prepare your home for sale when it comes to design, staging, and of course paint, right?

Of course.

So, Leann, let's get started. You recently bought a new house.

I did.

Well, it's not new. It's a used new house, but you had sold your house and you are doing consulting as well for some clients right now because the spring real estate market is pumping up. So, what are some things that people need to understand about getting their house ready for sale regarding their walls there?

First Impressions Matter When Selling Your Home

Oh, for sure. I always feel like a first impression is key, especially for the buyer of the house. So, they walk through the front door and they quickly look around, right? And if they're seeing scuffs and dirty walls and whatnot, that's just another headache. And people don't want to have to fix the house up unless they have to, unless you do what I did and bought something that needs updating.

But first impressions are key. So, if you're going to paint anything in your house, get that front entrance tiptop and up in shape and stuff.

The other thing too is just any large wall holes or gouges and stuff. We're going to have to fix that up too.

And then of course what I like to paint, one of my favorite things to paint is baseboards.

You know, if you have the pristine looking wall, but then you got grubby baseboards, even just giving all your baseboards a quick coat of paint can do wonders for selling your house.

Okay. So let's get into some trends or some colors that maybe were fashionable when the house was done or last painted and what is working now?

Okay.

So let's talk about builder beige.

Oh yes, builder beige.

So builder beige. Should people just put another coat of builder beige on or should they switch that up?

That's not a straight answer, of course, because if you guys all know, if you go into show homes, you're still going to see a lot of white walls, right? Or just off white, which is still fashionable and trendy.

Although I'm getting a lot of requests to change those walls. It's just too cold, too sterile. Let's warm it up.

So, if we go back to beige, builder beige is a little bit darker, although beige is coming back. And I know beige is a swear word to a lot of people. It's like “ugh,” right? But people are tired of those stark white walls and we want to warm it up. So, it's just more of an off white.

In the end though, I find that when people buy a house, they usually want to put their own personal stamp on it. So, they're usually going to repaint the house anyways.

But what I am seeing is just a lighter beige, but not white.

So, lighter beige, not white. Okay. That's why you need a professional color consultant and consultation, I should say.

Yeah. And so, when you come into a house and you're giving a consultation to a client, what are some of the first things that you look at or you say to the client or help guide them in that consultation process? And this is when they're selling the house, correct?

Yes.

Paint Colors That Can Hurt a Home Sale

So they usually, we walk around the house and just see if there's any major things that need to be done.

And I usually point out when a person's shopping for a house, they're not really looking at the walls. They're looking at the space overall and function. And so if we get into the details, then we do look at the walls, of course.

And I always say, well, look at you have a huge window right here and it's shining on these walls and you can see fingerprints, scrubbiness, anything, right? We should definitely give those walls just a fresh coat of paint.

It'll do wonders and it'll just freshen up the whole space and give a great first impression.

So, yeah.

Now, one of the questions that we had when we were doing some research was, will changing the paint color affect the resale value of the home. Maybe speak to that.

Okay. It can.

You should walk into a house and it should just feel right. So, that means the perfect neutral that works well with all the other flooring and the tiles and the countertops and stuff.

So, if you walk into a house and it's kind of like a purpley gray, but then we've got a brown floor, you can just tell when it's off.

So, I would definitely recommend changing the paint color to just a more neutral.

Yeah, because it really can put people off when they're searching for a house and they get a bad impression, a feeling. People go off a feeling.

So, it's best to even paint the main areas like the front entrance, the main living room, all the way up into the stairwell and the landing area because bedrooms, if you have kids, they usually want to pick their own color anyways.

But if you just get that overall main area looking perfect.

Yeah. That'll help you immensely.

Yeah. So, it'll help maybe not change the value or whatever of the house, but it'll change how fast, how long it's on the market.

Correct. Yes.

Definitely.

Staging Mistakes That Turn Buyers Away

So, when people are wanting to put their home up for sale, what are some things that they shouldn't do if they want to sell it quickly?

Things they shouldn't do? Well, you should always have some furniture in your house for staging purposes because people want to visualize.

Even if it's not their taste, they want to see a sense of space like, “Oh, I can fit a big couch in here,” or something like that.

And then that also relates to not having too much stuff in your space, right? Get rid of the clutter and if need be, shove it into your closets.

I mean in the end people will be looking inside the closets too but at least that first impression is key.

And clean it up and just get rid of the clutter and that would be a huge advantage.

Yeah.

Now let's say somebody has purchased a home and they want to do a refresh.

Yes.

Where do you fit in that?

Oh, those are my favorite.

Those are your favorites. Okay.

Because usually they get the keys to the house and ideally they will hand the keys over to me and then I will start painting because I'm so much faster when there's no furniture in the space.

So what happens is usually a lot of people want to pick the colors before they move in, but I don't think that's necessarily a great idea.

So we can pick a color in a couple hours or even less than that.

And yeah, we just start refreshing everything, including closets. Closets are a huge pain in the butt to empty out and they are essentially like a little room.

So, when there's no furniture, nothing in the house, it's quick and easy and it's just like you're moving into your own fresh new old house or whatever.

So, yeah, definitely my favorite.

Good.

And at that point you can do the walls. You can do any touchups, fixing of the walls, any holes, nicks, scrapes, and all that kind of stuff.

That's right.

Why Timing and Flexibility Matter During Painting Projects

And then what about after somebody moves in? Because it always happens whenever you're moving furniture and there's dings and nicks and all of that. How do you deal with that with the client?

Well, I'd almost recommend that we work closely together, when are your movers coming? Is there a particular room you want me to finish first?

I do recommend that we get the bedrooms done and then they can move their furniture in and then I would come back and do the hallways or the stairwells for example.

Stairwells are a pain in the butt to paint to begin with and especially when you're moving big items of furniture up the walls.

It happens, right? You ding the wall and unfortunately paint nowadays, it's kind of hard to touch up.

They've taken a lot of the VOCC's out of the paint. So it's hard to describe, but you can see touchups a lot more readily.

There's areas where you can get away with it, but if you want that “you just painted your whole house” look, all of a sudden now I see a touchup. And that's just not ideal.

So, there's strategies and a great painter will work with a homeowner and be like, “Okay, look, we'll come back to do this section.”

It's just flexibility is key as well for a happy client and great results.

So, yeah.

Perfect. And you're all about the results, right?

That's right.

That's why you're in demand and that's why you're highly sought in Edmonton simply because you do a great job.

And is there anything else that Edmonton homeowners who are looking to sell their home or move into a new home that we haven't really discussed about painting, prep, design, staging?

I'm trying to draw on my own experience right now buying my new old home and what I'm currently doing.

I mean, I'm looking on Pinterest a lot, just getting ideas of how I want to decorate and design it.

The main thing is to choose your color last.

Okay, so you want to pick your furniture or move your old stuff, but I'm going to pick some new stuff because it fits the space better.

Everyone rushes to get that paint color. They want to pick it right away. I'm like, just wait. We got to see what works with what.

But yeah, I'm getting ideas and I'm scrolling a lot looking for the perfect light fixture or rug or whatever, the fun stuff.

I find it a lot of fun.

So, yeah, just have fun with it and just make sure it all coordinates and that's where a professional comes into play, right?

Okay.

Well, there you have it, folks. Leanne from Walls Revived can come out and give you a design consultation as well as a color consultation in the city of Edmonton and be happy to do so.

And if you're getting ready to sell your home, she can come in and give you some ideas for staging, setting up the rooms for sale and for display, as well as doing some touchups to ensure that you have a really good experience and people come in and have that sense of “Yeah, I like this place.”

That's right.

All right, cool. We'll see you guys on the next video.

See you.