How much difference does repainting make in attracting renters?
Member since 2020 · 38 posts · 9 votes
I am close to purchasing my first SFH rental. The interiors are painted beige. The paint is fine - it just needs a little touch up here and there. My property manager took a tour of the house today and gave me a (low priority) recommendation of repainting the house "agreeable gray".
I am curious how much and what kind of difference going from B+ color to A+ color makes to the rent, rentability and cashflow in your experience.
TIA
Praveen
Speaking as a landlord and a former painter myself, going from B+ to A+ is probably one of the easiest (and cheapest) things you can do that could make a world of difference for potential tenants. It's why nearly every apartment complex does this when they have any turnover.
Remember it's not just appealing to the eyes but it can also give that "new apartment" smell and presents an overall cleaner interior.
Oh, one addition as it's too late to edit. In my home (granite, hardwood, stainless steel appliances, etc.)… walls are grey with crown molding and decorative trim in the living spaces and master bedroom. Other bedrooms are grey-ish, no molding or trim (besides baseboards). Basement has plain white paint with regular old carpet. We're okay with that. We spend most of our time in the living spaces and enjoy the nicer finishes there. Most of the guests at our house also spend the majority of the time in that area (except the twin boys next door, they go straight for the toys in the kids' bedrooms).
The further away you are from the main living spaces, the less important paint colors are.
@Mike Zahniser totally agree, go with a basic white, easy, clean, fresh. And makes the place much brighter and appealing.
@Praveen Balaji I think it all depends on the style of house you have.
I love Glidden Crisp Linen for our apartments. It is a nice warm white that goes with our alpine oak doors and brass hardware and golden 90's oak cabinets.
I love SW Pure White because it's about as clean white as you can get without getting cold. We use it on our more modern houses that have the square painted trim.
I love SW Shoji White for more traditional homes that need the white detailed trim to pop. It's not too beige or deep of a color.
There are so many elements to a home, paint is one of them, but what about the trim and cabinets and countertops too? The paints compliments them all and can't fix other flaws (though contractors sure love to use paint to cover up flaws....)
@Natalie Schanne said it best and I have countless examples of similar experiences.
Paint and flooring are a constant hot button for our group. We are going through a transition after a company acquisition last year and many of the homes have lots of deferred maintenance and out of touch owners. When we recommend switching from carpet to LVP and updating the paint you'd think we were delivering new's from satin himself.
Paint alone will not help attract renters if they are avoiding holes in the floors and walking under squeaky fans. It's a collective of maintaining the property to a market standard. If someone is skimping on paint they're liking cutting corners on other maintenance items that could use attention.
I come across far to many investors concerned about the short dollar and not the long. I attribute this mostly to not purchasing correctly while calculating expenses incorrectly from the start, but that's a topic for another discussion.
Thanks all. It's great to read all opinions.
A DIY is not possible for me because I'm out of state, but I did speak with my property manager today. We are going to try renting the house with minor touch-ups, pretty painting the bathrooms and a bedrooms which are all pastel blue. If prospective tenants give us feedback for a change of color, we might consider repainting the rest of the house or slightly adjust the rent if you are unable to rent it in 2-3 weeks.
@Julie Marquez - I wish I had your eye for colors. And I live in a house that was very nicely painted... but we are finding a lot of hidden gems behind the paint...
I agree with the folks who said the grey color is today's "in" color. Tomorrow, maybe we go back to Navajo White. Who knows.
About the only thing bad about it is that it allows you to immediately recognize a flip. Nobody except an investor paints anything gray, "agreeable" or not.
Anybody remember when all the kitchen appliances came in avocado? Then they started coming in white? Then black? I think now it's stainless steel. I haven't bought an appliance in a while so I can't say for sure. In a few years it'll be something else, and about the only thing interesting about it is that it allows you to play "archaeologist" and "scientifically" put a date on a photo based on the color of the appliances.
So I agree with everybody who said, don't bother spending the money unless it's really needed. If a few touch-ups is all it needs, then give it a few touch-ups. If it looks like a disaster that a fresh paint job will fix, then you can worry about what color to buy.
Amen. I can't stand gray. It's so cold and gloomy, in my opinion. I think it's already out of style. It's so funny to look at real estate ads and see all the gray done by flippers. You cracked me up. So true.
And yes, I remember avocado green and shag carpet - scary to think what ended up in that old shag carpet with the orange and yellow and brown colors.
I like white appliances. They just never go out of style.
What we did in the apartment building I managed, was - the owner had several apartment buildings and he bought Kelly-Moore paint - some basic off-white color, forget the name - by the bucket load. He painted every unit with that paint. When we turned over an apartment, he just painted from about eye level to the floor.
I think it's more the smell of paint that makes tenants happy. It's kind of a Jedi mind trick. Makes you think the place is really clean and well-maintained. Puts tenants into a frame of mind that it's a nice place. So, instead of looking for problems, they overlook them.
This is why I learned not to bother showing an apartment until it was move-in ready, too.
You can't paint to suit everyone's tastes, but you can paint a color that's not offensive to anyone. It might be boring, but if you hate purple, you aren't going to rent an apartment with purple cupboards. If I was looking for an apartment for rent, I would cringe if it was gray, to be honest. I can always put lots of colorful artwork up and color up a room. I'd rather start with a neutral pallette that isn't a cold color.
I worked as a leasing agent at one point around 2006 and the big thing was the feature wall, and they're back "in" again. Those are just such a bad idea if it's not your own home. So, they paint a red wall, and the tenant's furniture and artwork won't work and they hate red - you work harder to find the tenants who not only qualify, but love red feature walls.
@Praveen Balaji a fresh coat of paint is one of my top updates when trying to attract better higher paying tenants. It gives the unit a fresh clean look. Highly highly recommend.
Also, another great strategy is to get cleaners you thoroughly clean the entire unit professionally. Those 2 elements are sure to give your unit a better chance at higher quality tenants. I wouldn’t do it on every turnover but if you are just starting out for sure.
Good luck
I agree with the folks who said the grey color is today's "in" color. Tomorrow, maybe we go back to Navajo White. Who knows.
About the only thing bad about it is that it allows you to immediately recognize a flip. Nobody except an investor paints anything gray, "agreeable" or not.
Anybody remember when all the kitchen appliances came in avocado? Then they started coming in white? Then black? I think now it's stainless steel. I haven't bought an appliance in a while so I can't say for sure. In a few years it'll be something else, and about the only thing interesting about it is that it allows you to play "archaeologist" and "scientifically" put a date on a photo based on the color of the appliances.
So I agree with everybody who said, don't bother spending the money unless it's really needed. If a few touch-ups is all it needs, then give it a few touch-ups. If it looks like a disaster that a fresh paint job will fix, then you can worry about what color to buy.
Amen. I can't stand gray. It's so cold and gloomy, in my opinion. I think it's already out of style. It's so funny to look at real estate ads and see all the gray done by flippers. You cracked me up. So true.
And yes, I remember avocado green and shag carpet - scary to think what ended up in that old shag carpet with the orange and yellow and brown colors.
I like white appliances. They just never go out of style.
What we did in the apartment building I managed, was - the owner had several apartment buildings and he bought Kelly-Moore paint - some basic off-white color, forget the name - by the bucket load. He painted every unit with that paint. When we turned over an apartment, he just painted from about eye level to the floor.
I think it's more the smell of paint that makes tenants happy. It's kind of a Jedi mind trick. Makes you think the place is really clean and well-maintained. Puts tenants into a frame of mind that it's a nice place. So, instead of looking for problems, they overlook them.
This is why I learned not to bother showing an apartment until it was move-in ready, too.
You can't paint to suit everyone's tastes, but you can paint a color that's not offensive to anyone. It might be boring, but if you hate purple, you aren't going to rent an apartment with purple cupboards. If I was looking for an apartment for rent, I would cringe if it was gray, to be honest. I can always put lots of colorful artwork up and color up a room. I'd rather start with a neutral pallette that isn't a cold color.
I worked as a leasing agent at one point around 2006 and the big thing was the feature wall, and they're back "in" again. Those are just such a bad idea if it's not your own home. So, they paint a red wall, and the tenant's furniture and artwork won't work and they hate red - you work harder to find the tenants who not only qualify, but love red feature walls.
I might pull that jedi mind trick you refer to. I purchased a 2-level SFH. It has a bedroom and bathrooms on the 2nd level with blue pastel that I'm definitely going to paint over. I'm considering painting the kitchen as well to give the house that "new smell" on both levels. This might be a good compromise between painting the whole house ($3.5K-$4.5K) and giving for that fresh smell which tenants arguable seem to love (from the various responses).
@Praveen Balaji a fresh coat of paint is one of my top updates when trying to attract better higher paying tenants. It gives the unit a fresh clean look. Highly highly recommend.
Also, another great strategy is to get cleaners you thoroughly clean the entire unit professionally. Those 2 elements are sure to give your unit a better chance at higher quality tenants. I wouldn’t do it on every turnover but if you are just starting out for sure.
Good luck
Thanks Phil. Yes, the house is already professionally cleaned.
@Natalie Schanne said it best and I have countless examples of similar experiences.
Paint and flooring are a constant hot button for our group. We are going through a transition after a company acquisition last year and many of the homes have lots of deferred maintenance and out of touch owners. When we recommend switching from carpet to LVP and updating the paint you'd think we were delivering new's from satin himself.
Paint alone will not help attract renters if they are avoiding holes in the floors and walking under squeaky fans. It's a collective of maintaining the property to a market standard. If someone is skimping on paint they're liking cutting corners on other maintenance items that could use attention.
I come across far to many investors concerned about the short dollar and not the long. I attribute this mostly to not purchasing correctly while calculating expenses incorrectly from the start, but that's a topic for another discussion.
This is my first investment and I've been doing nothing but running numbers on over 100 properties. I hope I got them right on this one.
@Praveen Balaji
I’ve had much success with the agreeable gray. People seem to love it. You can thank Joanna Gaines. The last two properties I’ve done look eerily similar, and I’m beginning to feel like a one trick design pony, but it really seems to make the folks happy. I say rock it till the wheels fall off. In a decade or so, grey will look like beige does now and we’ll be on to a new agreeable shade.
It is not one trick design pony, it is called design nirvana :) Your tenants are ever going to see only one of your properties, so no one will ever know! Our last 15 properties look exactly the same. With our initial properties, we experimented with various combinations of paint/floors/cabinets trying to salvage some of the existing elements. Finally we arrived at a combination that looks very good; and just follow the formula each time. Even if it means demolishing serviceable elements. Tenants love it... we are able to charge anywhere from $50 to $150 above the market price, which goes to the OPs question. I used to visit the properties after the completion of each rehab to admire the new look and show off the before/after pics to friends and family. I don't anymore, they all look the same to me; I can't tell the difference between my own properties. But it works, tenants love it, and it is easy!
Paint, granite, and black/SS appliances are the easiest/cheapest thing you can do to make a unit present better.
Always do a neutral-ish color and make sure you don't paint everything the same color. Do the trims & ceiling one color and walls a different one. A lot of B-D rentals have lazy landlords that throw on the same **** paint on the whole thing. It shows like crap.
A fresh coat of paint is equivalent to that "new car" smell :) It makes you so excited and more likely to go for it and it just feels new.