Staging a home “For Sale” is more important than ever in today’s Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand real estate market. Nothing adds value like a fresh coat of paint. Nick Strumke, a sales executive with The Trembley Group Real Estate in Myrtle Beach, is both a real estate marketing expert and a residential house-painting expert with some helpful suggestions.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that today’s Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand real estate market is a seller’s market. Homes are selling in record short times. Sometimes homes are selling for more than asking price after “bidding wars” bring multiple offers.

Using Paint to Stage a Home “For Sale”

And someone doesn’t have to be an avid HGTV addict to recognize the value in sprucing up a home before putting it on the market. In fact, a recent survey found that staged homes—those deliberately decorated with an eye toward enticing buyers—tend to sell in half the time that non-staged properties do and tend to sell for a higher sales price to asking price ratio.

With the Myrtle Beach home-selling season starting to heat up, even in the red-hot Grand Strand market, it’s more important than ever that a home for sale stand out from the pack.

And hiring an expensive home staging service isn’t the only way to plant a “SOLD” sign in front of a home. Keeping a few basics in mind, home-sellers can polish their homes into prime selling themselves—at a price that won’t break the budget.

Magazines and television shows are full of articles and programs about staging a home for sale. Wide ranging media like Forbes, HGTV, Realtor, Better Homes and gardens, and Southern Living have all done recent stories on the importance of home-staging when selling and every story starts with painting as one of the best ways to add net value to a home and make it sell faster.

Meet Nick Strumke, Award Winning Realtor and Painter

Nobody on the Grand Strand knows this better than Nick Strumke, a Sales Executive and Realtor with The Trembley Group Real Estate in Myrtle Beach. Nick knows more than a little about staging a home for sale with a fresh coat of paint. In addition to being a top-producing realtor in the highly competitive Myrtle Beach housing market, Nick is a partner in Southern Custom Painting and Pressure Washing, an award-winning residential and commercial painter in Myrtle Beach.

“Helping buyers fall in love with a property means more than running the vacuum and fluffing the pillows. It’s all about decluttering and updating,” says Strumke. “And I know, dollar for dollar, there’s not a better way to add value to a home than with a fresh coat of paint.  First impressions are everything when selling your home.”

When prepping your home for sale, one of the most important tasks is giving your walls a fresh coat of paint. So, does the paint color matter?  The standard advice from most real estate professionals is to keep them neutral with shades of white. That’s good advice but many  home stagers and interior designers prefer to take a more stylish approach.

Remember, the overall goal of home staging is to make each room feel fresh, inviting and neutral enough that prospective buyers can imagine themselves living there.

That doesn’t have to translate, however, to bland, boring rooms devoid of style. Sometimes white can work, but a greater concern is making sure the room doesn’t look too stark. Zillow, a real estate database company that’s been around since 2006 says elegant, crowd-pleasing neutral paint colors – one of the countless shades of white or grey –  can help you stage your home to perfection.

When considering all the choices, it’s important to present a home in the right light and choose neutral paint colors that coordinates with a room’s furnishings and finishes. Warm or dark neutrals can add style and maintain a mainstream look.

Paint Will Neutralize Odors

Pets, kids, what was served for dinner last night, a mildew-covered bathroom, as well as many other conditions can make a home smell. A homeowner is probably immune to a home’s smell, so recruiting the nose of a friend or neighbor or an experienced realtor can be a big help.

“Inexpensive tricks for ridding a home of odors and giving it an inviting aroma include baking cinnamon-coated apples or slice-and-bake cookies in the oven – or burning vanilla-scented candles.” Strumke says. “It’s also a good idea to grind half a lemon in the garbage disposal to remove sink odors.”

Strumke doesn’t recommend using a spray to deodorize a home. Sometimes it gives a cheap, institutional bathroom smell, which is hardly the image a seller’s going for. Smokers who normally smoke indoors should start limiting smoking to outside the home and take extra steps to deodorize indoors. In addition to making a home look good, Strumke says, “Nothing gives a home a clean, fresh, like-new smell like a fresh coat of paint. Many folks are very sensitive to tobacco smell and indoor-smokers usually don’t notice the smell. Sometimes the the only way to rid a house of the stale tobacco smell is to prime and repaint. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to take out the trash, too.”

Paint is Not Expensive

A few gallons of paint can go a long way in making a home more chic—and the cost can’t be beat. Covering a 12-by-12-foot room with two coats will cost about $50 to $100, including supplies.

“A home’s interior painted in an off-white or a light grey or even beige, gives buyers an idea of what they can do with a space,” says Strumke. “Darker or trendier colors can be used for accent walls or to highlight details such as a fireplace or an arched doorway. But for walls, you simply can’t go wrong with a light color, the lighter the better. Light colors do the best job of hiding imperfections on the wall.”

The exterior is the very first impression that buyers will have of a property and, if they don’t like what they see, it’s not uncommon for them to just walk away without finding out what the interior has to offer. “Make sure the exterior leaves a lasting impression by consistently maintaining the lawn and landscaping, power-washing any siding, and giving shutters a fresh coat of paint. A fresh coat of paint on the front door goes a long way to making a home feel inviting. And don’t hesitate to add accessories like a doormat or wreath on the entranceway to add an extra welcoming touch,” Strumke adds.

A Few Tips From Nick Strunke

While a flat or matte finish is difficult to clean and can shows scuffs, increasing the sheen will show imperfections.

“Eggshell or satin bounces light off the walls to make spaces seem larger and is a good option for kitchens and bathrooms since it’s easy to clean,” Strumke says.

And gloss, the shiniest of all, is best reserved for trim. But gloss accentuates flaws, so use it sparingly.

Strumke recommends using different variations of the same color throughout the home. The Paint Quality Institute, a paint education resource, refers to this as “layering.” Choose a color card, which usually has about three or four similar hues, and use two or more colors from the single card. Use the lighter colors in the main living areas and darker shades for the rooms that branch out, such as the bedrooms, Strumke suggests.

Of course trim should be painted white but not stark white, which can take on gray tones against some wall colors, says Strumke, who suggests antique white or Navajo white as better options. If the home has dated stained-wood trim, simply painting it off-white can bring it up-to-date. But don’t forget to use a primer first.

Zillow’s Paint Color Study

According to a new analysis by Zillow, paint color makes a difference and should definitely be a change a seller should consider. After analyzing more than 32,000 listing photos of homes that have sold across the US, Zillow came up with a list of the colors that performed the best.

For example, homes that are painted “greige,” a shade somewhere between light gray and beige, tended to sell for $3,496 more than similar homes in brown or tan.

Gray has been the new white for years now. But not all grays are created equal. “Greige,” a pale gray with a beige undertone, is one of the most versatile colors for www. Essentially a pale taupe, greige is a cool, sophisticated hue that can complement and add depth to a mostly white room. It’s great in both large and smaller spaces.

“Color can be a powerful tool for attracting buyers to a home, especially in listing photos and videos,” Nick Strumke says. “Painting walls in fresh, natural-looking colors, particularly in shades of blue and pale gray, not only make a home feel larger, but also are neutral enough to help future buyers envision themselves living in the space. Incorporating light blue in kitchens and bathrooms may pay off especially well as the color complements white countertops and cabinets, a growing trend in both rooms.”

Here are Zillow’s findings on colors to choose (and avoid) and the affect they could have on a home’s selling price:

Kitchens:

• Blue (light blue to soft gray-blue): home sold for $1,809 more on average

• Yellow (straw yellow to marigold): home sold for $820 less on average

Bathrooms:

• Blue/purple (light powder blue to periwinkle): home sold for $5,440 more on average

• White/no color (off-white or eggshell white): home sold for $4,035 less on average

Bedrooms:

• Blue (light cerulean to cadet blue): home sold for $1,856 more on average

• Pink (light pink, to antique rose; often found in kids rooms): home sold for $208 less on average

Dining Room:

• Blue (slate blue to pale gray blue; navy blue also found in dining rooms with white shiplap): home sold for $1,926 more on average

• Red (brick red, terracotta, or copper red): home sold for $2,031 less on average

Living Room:

• Brown (light beige, pale taupe, oatmeal): home sold for $1,809 more on average

• Blue (pastel gray, pale silver to light blue, periwinkle): home sold for $820 less on average

Home Exterior:

• Gray/brown (greige — mix of gray and beige): home sold for $1,526 more on average

• Brown (medium brown, taupe, or stucco): home sold for $1,970 less on average

Front Door:

• Gray/blue (navy blue to dark gray or charcoal): home sold for $1,514 more on average

Whether buying a home or selling a home or thinking about repainting a home with an eye toward selling in the future, give Nick Strumke a call at 843.655.5470. Nick is an expert who loves to talk about the Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand real estate market. No one is better equipped to discuss using paint to stage a home for sale and there’s not a better qualified sales executive on the Grand Strand.

For more information contact: Nick Strumke, Sales Executive & Realtor, NStrumke.TheTrembleyGroup.com, 843.655.5470

Need help? Call The Trembley Group at 843.945.1880 ext. 100 and we’ll help you look for the perfect listing or buyers agent!

At The Trembley Group, we pride ourselves on being the experts at more than just selling real estate. We are local residents, some of us have been here for a lifetime. The rest of us will be here until the end of time. We love living, working, and playing in the diverse backyard of Coastal Carolina, and look forward to helping you live and love your dreams soon too. Please reach out to us by phone or email for personalized service and one-on-one advice.

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