When you are selling your home you want to do everything you can to showcase the many positive features of your home …all the features that will cause buyers to want to buy your house. But there are also some negative things, like WALLPAPER, that will discourage buyers from putting an offer on your home.
It might be hard to believe, but having wallpaper in your house actually decreases the value of your home. This is because wallpaper is one of the top five things that will keep people from buying a home.
Although removing wallpaper and painting is a chore and will cost you some money, removing it will increase your chances of selling quickly because neutral paint colors have a much broader appeal to buyers of any age. Homes with wallpaper can sit on the market for a very long time …and that usually means several price reductions. So while it might cost some money to remove wallpaper, not removing it will cost you more in the long run.
Here are the reasons sellers give for not removing wallpaper:
- It was chosen by my decorator and I’m sure everyone will like it!
- The wallpaper was very expensive or it cost a lot of money to hang the wallpaper.
- It will cost too much and it is too much trouble to remove it
I don’t think THIS wallpaper is going to inspire ANYONE to want to buy this house
Here are the reasons why sellers SHOULD remove wallpaper:
Wallpaper is an extremely personal choice.
If you go into a wallpaper store, there are thousands of patterns to chose from. Why is that? It’s because people like very different things, so the odds of someone having the exact same taste as you do and liking your wallpaper are very low. And most younger buyers don’t like ANY wallpaper in a house.
Removing wallpaper can be difficult.
Removing wallpaper usually requires a lot of work. It can be a slow painstaking process, and in some cases, the wall can be damaged by the removal of the wallpaper. If that happens, the walls will need to be repaired. Buyers don’t want to deal with the additional expense or hassle of removing wallpaper after they move in.
Removing wallpaper can be costly.
Here is what a professional painter has to say about removing wallpaper:
“I never give an estimate for removing wallpaper…because you never know what you have to deal with; it could take a few hours, or it could take up to a few days, to finish a room out to paint. The worst-case is when the wall was never sized before the paper was hung, and the paper comes down in very small pieces. You will often have a lot of areas that need to be repaired, in some instances I have had to skim coat the entire wall, sand, prime, and paint—that is when it takes days to finish”.
Homes that have wallpaper appear out-of-date.
Wallpaper makes a home appear out-of-date and that raises concerns about deferred maintenance. While having up-to-date decor doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not a home is well-maintained , the two are linked in many buyers minds.
That is why buyers don’t want homes with wallpaper!
And when buyers do like a home enough to overlook the wallpaper, they will factor in the worst-case scenario and offer a price that is much lower than the home is listed.
This room with neutral paint is the look that today’s buyers want!
However, there is one exception:
If you are selling a historic house that has been restored and the paper is original or a reproduction of the original paper then it’s a POSITIVE selling feature. Most people who buy historic houses like to have as many of the original features as possible. But restored historic homes are the only exception!
SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT REMOVING WALLPAPER:
Call PITTSBURGH STAGED HOMES at 412-427-2675 to find out how to make your home appealing to today’s buyers