Weighing Resale Potential When Considering Bold Design Choices

I thought this comment on one of my recent instagram posts was worth a lengthier, more well thought out reply.  Here’s the comment:

I love how your home is a reflection of your personal style!  How do you weigh resale potential when considering bold choices?  I’m preparing to buy a cosmetic fixer for my first house and am battling between what I’d like and what might be best for the homes value.

The answer isn’t a simple one, and I think it presents a great topic for discussion.

You all know I’m not a real estate agent, but I have bought and sold homes more than the average human.  My husband and I have moved 8 times thus far, having lived in Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and now South Carolina.  And did I mention I’m originally from Southern California?  We’ve bought and sold at different price points, in good markets and those that are struggling, with the help of an agent and completely on our own.  While I can’t speak to the experience a real estate agent would have on the subject, I can speak from my own experience as both a buyer and a seller in different markets.  And as a homeowner who will be putting her sixth house on the market sometime next year and moving into a new home, my mind is currently in that “staging to sell” zone.  So this question really could not have come at a better time.

(Check out the house portraits I had made of all the places we’ve called home.)

Staging to Sell

At the heart of what I’ve learned as a seller is this ~ Staging a home to sell is more about removing evidence of everyday life than it is about removing your personal interior design style.

Buyers are typically not put off by your furnishings unless they’re in disrepair and thereby bringing a room’s attractiveness down.  I like to think of it like this, if you were going to a job interview you would probably dress for the job you want.  It doesn’t matter what color your suit, not really, but showing up in sweat pants is a non starter.  You feel me?

Will every buyer like and/or appreciate a bold black ceiling?  Absolutely not!  Can a buyer look past a paint color they don’t appreciate in order to objectively form an opinion about the space?  1,000% Yes!  Don’t let HGTV’s House Hunters fool you.  Buyers look past paint colors all the time.  Paint is the easiest, least expensive home improvement you can make.  Nobody is walking away from a property that is priced right and in their desired location simply because the living room was painted red, and red is not their favorite color.  Ask me how I know.  😉

(Take a tour of our Kentucky home that sold in two weeks here.)

Paint can make things look more attractive, sure.  But it’s been my experience that paint won’t detract a buyer, so long as the evidence of everyday life is removed.

What is this evidence of everyday life I keep mentioning?

It’s toys left out all over the place covering floors and making spaces feel cramped.

It’s kitchen countertops covered with cookbooks and bowls of fruit…and the blender and the toaster oven…and all the things you use on a daily basis, but things that cover up your counter space making the kitchen feel cramped and cluttered.

It’s backpacks and dog leashes, shoes and rainboots piled sky-high in your mudroom.

It’s a fireplace mantel covered with so many family pictures that a potential buyer can’t appreciate the millwork.

It’s bathroom counters with your toothpaste, toothbrush and deodorant left out on display making buyers feel like they’ve walked into someone’s personal, private space rather than a bathroom they could imagine themselves using.

Basically it’s all the things you actually use in your everyday life.   Those things keep buyers from being able to see themselves living in your house.  But none of those things have anything to do with your design style. 

When Paint Colors Do Pose an Issue 

Selling a home is about highlighting its positives and detracting from its negatives.  And one fact I’ve learned on both the buying and selling end is that almost all people prefer light-filled rooms.  Natural light is everyone’s favorite house feature.

* Little tip- Try not to do an open house on a grey or rainy day.  Your house will not show as well because it will be dark and cave-like.

You can go bold with color, but keep in mind that if a paint color makes a room feel dark or cramped that may not be appealing to a potential buyer.  What you interpret as cozy or moody, may feel ominous to a potential buyer.

However, a dark ceiling in a room that receives a lot of natural light actually makes the room feel larger, not smaller because dark recedes thereby making the ceiling look higher.  At that point what looks like a bold color choice is actually a strategic move to making a room with a relatively small footprint feel more spacious.

So go ahead and get your bold paint on, but if you’re planning to resell, do so with thoughtful intention.

There’s no doubt that this pink vanity will not appeal to everyone.  But it does make this very small, window-less powder room feel airy and bright.  And airy and bright is better than small and dark.

I’ve walked through many a model home where I personally wasn’t crazy about the paint colors used on walls or the  fabric used for the window treatments, but I found that I was still able to appreciate the layout and the materials used to build the house.

Which brings me to one of the most important points.

Materials Matter

While I never worry about my decor style in terms of resale and often go for bold with paint (an easily changed aspect of design) I do consider what will appeal to potential buyers when it comes to choosing the hard materials in a space.  The materials that can’t easily be changed and/or are extremely costly to replace, things like flooring, countertops, and backsplash tile.

I don’t necessarily think you have to play it safe, but every selection should be made with intention. The following are three things I’ve always considered before a renovation, and they basically sum up the advice I’d give to any homeowner with resale in their near-ish future.

1. Return on investment.  ~ Are you putting more into a renovation than you’ll get out of it?  For instance, marble countertops are gorgeous, but they’re high maintenance and super expensive.  If you know you’re not in your forever house and resale is in your future, you might want to opt for a marble-look rather than the real deal.

2. Do the renovation materials match the style of the house?  I think it’s important to consider the style of your home when you’re renovating.  Is it a cape cod or a 70’s ranch?  Regardless of your personal design style, staying true to the overall style of the house when you’re renovating will go a long way with buyers when you decide to sell.  If you live in a brick colonial but love a midcentury modern vibe, go ahead and run wild with the decor (furnishings) but you might want to think twice about putting in a geometric backsplash tile in the kitchen.  You get what I’m saying here?  If you live in an old farmhouse and love a farmhouse style, go ahead and fly your buffalo check farmhouse freak flag as high as you want.   But if you live in a midcentury modern ranch, I’m not sure potential buyers will appreciate the farmhouse sink and butcher block countertops you want to install.  The exterior or curb appeal of your home is what brings buyers through the door.  Your goal as a seller is to make them want to stay.

3. Last but not least, are the renovation choices you’re making trendy?  I was recently touring a model home where the kitchen was outfitted with stainless steel subway tile.  And my initial thought was that it looked cool, but I guarantee in five years, maybe even three, it will no longer have appeal.  In that case, I believe a plain white would have been a better call, not because it’s “safe” but because it’s less trendy.  Yes, I know subway tile is still very popular, but white subway tile has been around long before Pinterest made it pinworthy.  Stainless steel subway tile however, that’s new and I personally don’t think it has design staying power in a residential application.

When it comes to renovating or decorating a home you know you will be reselling, I think the issue is less about trying to find a universally appealing look and more about finding a good balance between the cost of renovation, the architecture of the house and your personal design style.

So I guess my answer to the question of, “How do you weigh resale potential when considering bold choices? ” , is I do it by putting myself in the buyer’s shoes, removing my own emotional attachment to the space and trying to look objectively at whether or not I’d want to buy this house over again.

There’s a reason I’ve not done any patterned wallpapers, only grasscloth.  And there’s a reason I choose neutral-colored materials for countertops and tile.

Those are the things that grab my attention when I’m in a buyer’s shoes.

How do you all weigh resale potential against your design choices?