When your real estate selling agent and your home stager tell you that your house needs new interior paint before you list it for sale, you’re probably not surprised. When they instruct you that the walls must be neutral colours, you may baulk. Neutral colours are often misunderstood by people who haven’t studied colour theory and absolutely adored by those who know what amazing impacts colour can have on the human psyche. Real estate professionals, including those who provide property styling services all day every day, advocate neutral paint colours in homes listed for sale for several solid reasons including the ones we’ll list below.

Every day we are bombarded by messages. They come from everywhere around us. We hear them on the radio, the television, via the internet, and from the people we live and work with. We see messages on billboards and over the media. What we are probably not aware of on a conscious level is that we are also surrounded by carefully crafted colour signals that are powerful enough to change our thinking and our plans.

There is an entire industry built on the ways colours impact people, and your real estate selling agent and home stager have very good reasons for urging you to select neutrals for your home’s colour scheme. Here are some of the reasons why you’ll want to follow those instructions.

Emotion and Colour

Colours make a big impression on people. If the walls of a room or a building are painted in bright yellows and reds, your physical hunger will respond, which is why fast food restaurants rely heavily on those colours for advertisement and restaurant décor.

Blues and greens are favourites of law enforcement facilities because of the calmness and balance they evoke in human beings. These colours are often also found on the walls of hospitals and clinics for the same reasons.

Yellow tones suggest confidence and self-esteem. That makes this colour a perfect choice for schools and the children who attend them.

The Blank Slate

Big, bold colours bring about strong reactions in people. Neutrals, on the other hand, tend to do otherwise. Neutrals tend to evoke feelings of welcoming and warmth that is important when your goal is to make a prospective buyer get the sense of “I could live in this space”. Buyers also recognise that their things could also fit into these rooms.
Neutrals make the prospective buyer feel comfortable enough in your space to hang around a while and inspect your home without feeling anxious or out of place.

Interchangeability

Probably the best quality neutral colours have is that they are easy to decorate around. Your prospective buyers are looking for much more than clean, unmarred walls. Buyers don’t want to be forced to go to the expense and trouble of painting right away. They will be delighted to see that you have chosen wall colours that will miraculously work with their furniture. In truth, of course, your neutral paint colour will probably work with just about anybody’s furnishings.

With a neutral backdrop, a few throw cushions and some pattern and texture thrown in for good measure can transform a room into anything you want it to be. It’s a bit like the world renowned “little black dress”. Dress it up, or dress it down. It will look beautiful no matter what. Neutral colours are as all-purpose as paint gets.

Saleability

People who make their livings in the business of selling property – either from the real estate office or the property styling services perspective – know from experience that neutral colours help to sell houses. When buyers enter a home with a sophisticated, neutral colour scheme they feel as if they are in an upscale place that is somehow more valuable. (They will also offer more money for such a place than they would one that seems tacky or cheap.)

Buyers also take note of the fact that they will not need to spend money to repaint right away, so they see it as a net saving to them – something that means a great deal in Sydney’s real estate market.
Don’t be afraid to use neutrals as you paint your property before you list it for sale. Such colours will dove-tail with your selling agent and your property styling services idea of perfection.

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