Intro
Ever wonder whether or not painting your house is a good investment? I’ll go over all the major points from the perspective of a seller, and from the perspective of a homeowner. There’s more financial implications to painting than meets the eye at first glance.
Is painting your house a good investment?
With the market like it’s been, it can be pretty hard to find a safe investment these days. Good news is that painting your house can be one of the safest and easiest ways to put your money to work for you. Whether you are looking to hire someone or to do it yourself, having your home painted will add substantial equity to it. Let’s take a look at the financial and practical benefits of having different parts of your home painted as well as how much of a difference it makes hiring vs doing it yourself.
So, the quick answer is yes, painting your house is a good investment. The long answer is also yes for almost all painting projects. There are some projects that may make more sense to do yourself and others where it may make more sense to hire a professional. Oftentimes it boils down to whether or not you are planning on selling your house.
Interior
If you are planning on selling your house, then there are some general color trends you can follow which will help to increase your home’s value. And these color trends change from year to year, so it can help to keep up to date with these before hiring or painting yourself.
General Trends
- Homes with black doors sold for nearly $6K more than similar homes that didn’t have black doors.
- Light blue bathrooms sold for 1.6% more. With a national average home price of roughly 500K, that’s an automatic $8K increase in value. And when you think about the kind of effort you are putting in to paint a bathroom, that’s a few hundred dollars in materials and a day at the most. What other kind of investment is going to get you that kind of return? Even after you deduct materials, that’s like getting paid at $960 an hour to paint your bathroom. Even if you wanted to pay someone a few hundred dollars, you still end up $7K ahead.
- Homes with dark blue bedrooms sold for nearly $1,500 more than houses without dark blue bedrooms.
- White was found to be the best color for kitchens.
Cabinets
Having your cabinets replaced can get really expensive. That’s true even if you’re planning on doing it yourself. So why not consider painting them?
On average, Americans spend about $750 to get their cabinets painted. That’s if they are in good shape. No major dings, dents, cracks or peeling. Getting in that price range is only possible when the pros can come in and just paint right over the current cabinets. Once they start to deteriorate and need heavy sanding or patchwork the price jumps up to about $7K. If you are looking to get your cabinets completely replaced, you can look to spend about about $26K for a 10X10 kitchen.
So, needless to say, painting your kitchen cabinets yourself will save you a bit of money compared to having professionals do it. It will save you heaps of money when compared to getting your cabinets replaced. And depending on the style you are looking for, you might be able to get the exact look you are going for with a repaint and handle replacement.
If you are planning on selling, getting your cabinets repainted has been shown to increase home values by about $1,400, so if you’re planning on doing it yourself it’s definitely going to add value to your home. If you are planning on hiring someone to do it, you may want to consider the price before booking.
Exterior
Roughly two thirds of all real estate experts say that getting your exterior painted is important for raising curb appeal. It’s super important for your home to make a good first impression on prospective buyers. This may be a little less true in today’s market, depending on where you live too. But if you do find yourself in a tough spot selling your home, this is a great first place to start.
In terms of actual values, painting the exterior of your home can improve its value by up to 5%. So for the average home price of $500K, that’s an increase of $25K. With average costs on the higher end nearing $7K, that’s over 300% ROI.
Then there is the fact that if you neglect to paint the outside of your home, it could lead to bigger, more costly projects down the road. Besides making your home look good, a healthy coat of paint protects your home from the elements. It also…
- Protects moisture from entering
- Prevents insects from boring into wood
- Seals your home, making climate controlling more efficient
Painting is a worthwhile investment because it protects your home. It’s hard to put an exact financial value on protecting your home. While a bit drastic, the worst case scenario, unfinished siding could result in water leaking onto some electrical conduits which start a fire and burn your house down. What’s more likely to happen is that waiting too long in between painting will require a ton more sanding and prep work prior to painting. You may even need to get some siding or other elements replaced if they’ve taken too much damage.
It’s generally not a good idea to wait in between painting. The costs of additional prep work and repair work due to delayed painting can easily rack up to a significant amount. If you’re not sure whether or not your home needs painting, get in touch with a reputable painter in your area who offers free estimates.
Conclusion
Painting your house is a great investment, particularly if you are looking to sell. Just by going with certain colors for particular areas, you can likely add an additional $15K to your asking price. In total, you can expect to add roughly $40K to your home value prior to selling if you go with trendy color options. If you plan on doing it yourself, you can probably plan on spending between $2,000 and $3,000 to get all the supplies you need.
If you’re not planning to sell, painting is still economical because it’s one of the cheapest ways to give a new feel to an old space. How else are you going to make 90% of the areas you look at in your home look brand new? The only way would be to get an entirely new home!
If you’re looking to add some equity to your home before selling, you should definitely consider either hiring or painting yourself. Just keep in mind that if you don’t have any painting experience whatsoever, it will take longer than you expected, and things aren’t going to look perfect.
Thanks a lot for reading. Feel free to shoot us a question if you have any!
Sources
https://www.zillow.com/resources/stay-informed/best-paint-colors-sell-house/
https://www.zillow.com/resources/stay-informed/projects-increase-resale-value/
