Painting Before You Sell: What to Repaint, and What to Leave

Paint is one of the most common jobs on a pre-sale list, and one of the easiest to overdo. Buyers notice tired walls, scuffed doorframes and patched ceilings straight away, in person and in the listing photos. They rarely notice that the spare room was repainted. The trick is to spend your time and budget where buyers actually look.

Start where buyers start: the front of the house

The first impression is made before anyone walks in. A faded front door, peeling window frames or a chalky front wall tell buyers the house has not been looked after, even if everything inside is fine. If you only do one exterior job, make it the front door, the entry and the trim facing the street.

If the whole exterior is tired, ask whether a full repaint or a targeted one makes more sense. A site walk will tell you which walls are due and which are fine.

Inside: the rooms that carry the photos

Listing photos usually lead with the living area, the kitchen and the main bedroom. Those are the rooms where fresh paint does the most work:

• Living and dining areas. Scuffs at chair height, marks around light switches and patched-over holes from pictures all show up in photos.
• Hallways and entries. They take the most wear and they are the first thing buyers walk through.
• Ceilings. Water stains and yellowing are read as problems, not cosmetics. A stained ceiling raises questions about the roof.
• Doors, frames and skirting boards. Chipped and yellowed trim makes freshly painted walls look worse, not better.

Bedrooms that will be photographed empty, garages and laundries can usually wait unless they are in poor condition.

Choosing colours for a sale

A sale is not the time for a feature colour. Buyers want to imagine their own furniture in the space, and a light, warm neutral helps every room photograph well and feel larger. A few rules of thumb:

• Keep to one or two wall colours through the main living areas, so the house reads as one place.
• Use the same white on all the trim and doors.
• Choose a low sheen for walls. It is easy to clean and does not show every bump the way a shinier finish does. Our paint sheen guide explains why.
• If you have a bold accent wall, it may be worth painting it out. Our article on accent walls is for after you have moved in.

Small jobs that make a big difference

Not every pre-sale job is a full repaint. Some of the most effective work is small and quick:

• Fill and repaint nail holes and patched areas where artwork has come down.
• Repaint scuffed door frames and the bottom of doors, where shoes and vacuum cleaners hit them.
• Paint over old water marks on ceilings once the cause has been fixed.
• Freshen the front fence and letterbox, which buyers see before the house itself.
• Repaint the balustrade and railings on the front verandah or balcony.

A site walk will separate the jobs that change how the house presents from the ones that will not be noticed.

Paint presents a house; it does not hide problems

Fresh paint over rising damp, mould or cracked render will not survive a building inspection, and it can make buyers more suspicious, not less. If something is causing the damage, fix the cause first. Mould is the most common example; our article on dealing with mould before painting explains why it has to be treated, not covered.

Timing it around your campaign

Work backwards from the photography date, not the auction or open home. Paint needs time to dry and settle before furniture goes back against the walls and the stylist arrives, so plan for the painting to finish several days before the photographer. Book the site walk as soon as you know you are selling; the best painters are booked out weeks ahead in spring, which is also Sydney’s busiest selling season.

If the house is tenanted, the work needs to be scheduled with the tenants’ notice periods in mind. Our page for property managers explains how we work around tenancies.

Getting the quote right

Ask for a quote that lists each room and surface separately. That way you can see what each part of the job involves and drop the rooms that do not need it, rather than accepting or rejecting a single figure. That is how we quote residential painting: written and itemised after a site walk, never a number over the phone.

Ready for a written quote?

Call 1300 153 163, or tell us about the job and a person will reply within one business day. Every quote is written and itemised after a site walk.