Hi everyone.
I’m about to list the house. It’s a small mid terrace cottage and interest is most likely going to come from first time buyers.
Main living area wall paint is fine but stairway and skirting are scuffed by galumphing boys.
Agent strongly recommends patch-up only as he said buyers will redecorate to their own taste and in this market would rather pay a bit less for a house and paint themselves than pay £5k more for a beautifully staged house. FTBs are struggling to borrow and landlords have left this market, he said.
This isn’t a tear down and start again house as it’s Grade II listed. So shouldn’t I make it as presentable as possible? I don’t want to put it on the market with any area looking grubby.
The main walls are Dulux blush pink and the staircase paint is Wilko chalk white, done a few years back in a hard wearing formula (the decorator said at the time Wilko was best for high traffic).
Is it: Best to keep the stairway white?
Match the existing Dulux blush in their diamond trade version (apparently better than the Wilko) on stairs and skirting?
Repaint whole downstairs area ourselves in that one colour? I’m lucky that my OH is brilliant at this kind of job and does just as well as decorators we’ve hired previously.
I think putting a fresh version of the same colour on the stairs could make the open plan area look nicer, but if only one area is freshly done it might make the other walls look tired by contrast. Not necessarily in photos but for viewings.
You can see from the photos that the area painted blush next to the stairs has also fallen victim to galumphing. Dirt marks that resisted the magic sponge and some scratching.
Also we love the blush pink with our decor and I think FTBs would like it too (an interior designer friend recommended it when I first started planning to sell 18 months ago). But have trends moved on? Should we repaint the whole area an on-trend white? Even if ppl are going to redecorate is it true that buyers respond best to a blank canvas when viewing? (Agent says no, it will look too staged and appear unnecessarily expensive, I’ll end up spending money on decor and then not getting it back.)
Thanks everyone! First time here and I came upon this excellent board via Google and really impressed by all the detailed and considerate recommendations I’ve found so far.