Want to see green when you sell your home? Think yellow when you paint the kitchen.
Homes with a kitchen painted creamy or wheat yellow sold for $1,360 more than expected. Other room/color combinations that significantly increased a sale price were light green to khaki bedrooms ($1,332), and mauve, eggplant or lavender living rooms ($1,122).
“A fresh coat of paint is an easy and affordable way to improve a home’s appearance before listing,” Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell said in a statement. “However, to get the biggest bang for your buck, stick with colors that have mass appeal so you attract as many potential buyers to your listing as possible.”
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The right paint can also make a home look cleaner and more attractive to today’s first-time homebuyers who are really looking for turnkey properties. It also beats the average 64.4 percent return on investment for the average home improvement project, according to the 2016 Cost vs. Value report from Remodeling magazine.
The cost of painting a room ranges from $380 to $790, according to HomeAdvisor. (It runs an average $1,700 to paint the entire interior of a home.)
The Zillow report also found that painting a room the wrong color could make it sell significantly less. The biggest turnoff to buyers was a slate or dark gray dining room. Homes with that color combination sold for $1,112 less than expected. Other colors to avoid include orange living rooms and dark brown bathrooms.
