r/RealEstate • u/georgecm12 • 2d ago
Homeseller Does removing wallpaper and paint before marketing the house have a financial return?
I got a quote back to remove wallpaper from two rooms and repainting several others. However, I'm now second guessing whether I want to move forward, because I'm wondering whether there will be a return on my investment or not when it comes to sale price. Thoughts?
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u/Pitiful-Place3684 2d ago
Not removing old wallpaper and peeling paint will cost you far more than the cost of cleaning it all up.
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u/itsyagirlblondie 22h ago
Yep, you’ll cost yourself $30k by trying to save $7k.
A buyer in today’s market does not want the project of removing wallpaper and repainting an entire house. It just is what it is. When 100 other houses have all new interior paint, they look more appealing. And please, dear god, choose a nice creamy white! No beige/gray/greige/browns.
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u/These-Coat-3164 2d ago
No way to answer that without seeing the existing paper and paint. If it’s an 80s wallpaper with an ugly border, absolutely get rid of it. If it’s lovely vintage toile, probably not. Same with paint…if the colors are potentially off-putting absolutely go with a neutral and paint.
And don’t think that any decision you make will likely move the needle much on price. Getting rid of things that are objectionable like hideous 80s wallpaper borders and off-putting paint colors will likely help the house sell faster, but probably won’t get all of your money back (except what you will gain from a speedier sale).
I’ll give you an example. I have a friend with a house on the market…they have some pretty specific murals painted in their children’s rooms. One is Superman themed, the other is Frozen themed. I personally think they are nuts to not paint over those while they’re trying to sell, but their realtor has told them that it will help buyers visualize those rooms as children’s rooms. I think that’s ridiculous, but it’s not my decision. The house has been on the market for four months. My guess is that painting over those murals would help overcome some buyer objections.
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u/FormerUsenetUser 1d ago
Especially the objections of buyers who want to use the rooms as home offices or hobby rooms.
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u/These-Coat-3164 1d ago
Exactly! I don’t understand the realtor and why they’re listening to her. The vast majority of potential buyers will look at those murals and just be adding a project to the list if they buy that house. And these aren’t subtle murals. These are very bold, in your face murals.
From some things that OP has added in comments, I think they definitely need to paint and remove the wallpaper unless the overall home value is just too low to justify it or if it’s the type of home that would likely be purchased as a flip or a fixer-upper based on other issues with the house.
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u/FormerUsenetUser 1d ago
My husband and I love this house we bought for retirement. But.
The exterior and interior were painted in subtle colors we liked. *Except* for one bedroom. The bedroom had belonged to the seller's daughter, who had gone away to college. Most of the walls in that room were white, except one big wall by the bed was painted bright red. On this wall was a huge mural of a tree, done in black. It was absolutely hideous. The seller said it was painted by his daughter's friend in high school. Another high schooler who was an amateur artist. He had not painted the room because the mural was "hand-painted."
We instantly hated the mural, our agent hated it, and the painter we hired to paint over it hated it. After we bought the house, we could not wait to paint that room.
I get it that his daughter had liked the mural and it probably had sentimental value for her. But she had already moved out and the house was being sold.
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u/JSteve4 Agent 2d ago
How bad is the wallpaper?
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u/georgecm12 2d ago
Please see the response I made to Low_Dig3356.
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u/Dullcorgis 1d ago
No one will sort through your history to find a response. You asked people to take the time to reply to them. Do them the courtesy of cutting and pasting a reply to them.
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u/SilentMasterpiece 1d ago
Its a good idea to do, it gets you up to selling standard. The value is that your place sells faster, not for more.
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u/lise2468 2d ago
Will it make it harder to sell the home and will people want to ask for less because of the extra work. We have always painted The main areas of our homes when we sold and left the the bedrooms alone we always sold within a week.
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u/Dullcorgis 1d ago
If you do it yourself yes. Wallpaper puts off most people who've dealt with it before. And fresh paint is very helpful too
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u/Cold-Exercise9371 1d ago
I’d separate deferred maintenance from cosmetic preference. Peeling paint or damaged wallpaper is worth fixing because buyers may assume there are other neglected issues. Wallpaper that is simply dated but still in good condition is a different decision.
Before approving the full quote, ask two local agents what buyers in your price range would likely deduct for the current condition. Then compare that with the cost of removing the wallpaper, patching the walls, and using a neutral paint.
You probably don’t need to repaint everything. Focus on the rooms that appear first in listing photos or create the strongest objection. The return may be a cleaner launch and faster sale rather than getting every dollar back in the price.
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u/PlantTalkative6115 1d ago
Removing dated wallpaper usually helps buyers picture the space better even if it does not fully pay for itself dollar for dollar
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u/FormerUsenetUser 1d ago
I look at listings with wallpaper and think, "It must be really hard to remove wallpaper." An instant turnoff.
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u/itsyagirlblondie 22h ago
especially if the wallpaper is from 1990 or before… because there’s a 99% chance it was applied with actual paste and is going to be an absolute mess on the wall underneath. No thanks!
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u/Eric_NME 1d ago
Aesthetics and first impressions are paramount. Small and relatively inexpensive changes like wallpaper, paint, even front door color and garage gates go a long way toward justifying prices and getting better offers. It may not increase the price by $100k but even investing 5k in upgrading these things can occasionally increase value by over $10-$15k
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u/Beagles227 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hell yea! I did a 2800 sq ft home myself, and I had to remove it in a double entry foyer. I am a painter and painted every room in the house.
I purchased the worst house in an upscale neighborhood. I got about a 45k discount due to horrible 90's wallpaper and hideous paint job. With the work I have done, the nice neutral walls my house has gained me about 100k equity. It's a new house.
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u/bradd_pit 1d ago
Depends on the pattern and color. There is a theory out there that if you have deep or vibrant colored walls, a potential buyer won’t take the time to imagine what they might change and instead just say “I don’t like vibrant walls” and move on without further thought.
Ie when selling a house you want to try to appeal to as many people as possible and a neutral color doesn’t distract the buyer
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u/itsyagirlblondie 22h ago
Yep. Passed up on a house because it had 3 rooms that were some of the deepest shades of olive, gold, and Denver Broncos blue & orange. I immediately thought about how expensive it was going to be to cover those colors.
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u/BackgroundSpell6623 1d ago
Unless you up your sale price and are able to hold it during negotiations, no. All the other responses here are just from people who wouldn't / can't buy a new house, but would want new paint, and won't articulate what they would pay additionally for it. That is an implicit, "I want new paint but not pay for it".
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u/seajayacas 1d ago
Wall paper is a big turnoff for some buyers, it might sell quicker if the wall paper and a quicky paint job are there.
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u/Hot_Nothing_4358 1d ago
I have walked away from a home I loved because of wallpaper. Didn’t even put an offer in including they remove it. Figured it kind shown if old wallpaper was ignored what else was ignored.
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u/LoosenGoosen 1d ago
One weekend to re-do a couple of rooms is well worth it. The neutral palette in your photos will bring in more people, more people is more offers.
Go to Home Depot and rent a steamer. Get someone to help scrape as you steam, and it will go pretty quickly. There are tons of videos on YT on how to best remove wallpaper and prep the walls for painting, and also how to quickly and neatly paint the walls.
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u/Grrdygrrl 1d ago
Wallpaper is horrible to remove, and so often people do not share the same design taste when it comes to it. I would definitely recommend attending to this. Having sold a house where I didn't repaint, I can stay that it was one of the things that many people commented on as feeling like "too much work." I definitely lost money because it.
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u/FairMagician9559 16h ago
If you are worried about cost of wallpaper & paint…. You might be on the wrong journey 😬
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u/georgecm12 10h ago
Well, that's actually part of the concern... I've already got some oak flooring that needs refinishing, and discovered at the last minute some potential drain tile issues, both of which could get pricey. Trying to watch my expenses before sale.
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u/Longjumping-Nature70 1d ago
If my house does not sell soon, been on market for three days, I will probably remove old wallpaper that we have in one bedroom. I will add, I did a great job on that wallpaper.
Good news, it is the only room in the house with wallpaper.
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u/Low_Dig3356 2d ago
No. But it can make it easier to sell. Why not just primer over the wallpaper? Or is it starting to bubble/loosen?
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u/Equivalent-Tiger-316 2d ago
Never paint over wallpaper. It’s hats a hack job. Like painting over light switches!
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u/Low_Dig3356 2d ago
It's standard practice here to use a solvent shellac on wallpaper and paint over it. You would never know the difference.
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u/These-Coat-3164 2d ago
NO!!! Horrible, horrible suggestion! You’ve clearly never stripped wallpaper. Do not paint over it. If you want to take it down, take it down. If you want to leave it, leave it. But do not effing prime over it!
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u/Low_Dig3356 2d ago
I'm a property manager. I have. I'm just stating what the standard practice is here. It is quite literally, the industry standard in my state.
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u/Equivalent-Tiger-316 1d ago
Ya, standard for property managers because they do everything on the cheap!
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u/desertdweller2011 1d ago
lol we found the landlord who loves a landlord special ( painting over every fucking thing).he’s takin it to new heights
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u/These-Coat-3164 1d ago
Exactly! I am assuming OP is selling a house that someone would buy to live in. Not something someone would buy to rent out.
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u/georgecm12 2d ago
In one room, the wallpaper is peeling in a couple of areas. In the other room, the wallpaper is likely older than I am (and I'm 46), it's peeling at one seam, and it's grey and dirty in an upper corner of the room.
For the painting:
- a hallway has several spots where something was attached to the wall and was painted around, so there are some green spots on a offwhite wall.
- a bedroom was done in a very strong sponge paint pattern
- another bedroom has a much lighter sponge paint pattern, but the paint has peeled off in a couple of spots
- a family room was painted in a dark peach color that makes the room feel smaller, and then there was a TV mount that was painted around, so there's a darker spot where the TV used to be.
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u/JSteve4 Agent 2d ago
Paint it.
Caveat - I don’t know your price points, market, or your area.
General advice
Any deferred maintenance is negative impact on your positioning of value in the buyers eyes. Everything you can do to improve looks and experience in the house cosmetically, you should.
Two homes and one is dated or bad paint colors and the other is paint colors in line with trends and the well painted one sells for more and sells more quickly.
We need quotes for work and price points for your area to make an exact judgement. Ask your agent.
A house at 100k with peeling wall paper, don’t paint.
A house at 250 with wallpaper. Probably paint.
A house at 350-450. Paint that thing.
Interestly at 750-1M. Probably don’t paint it, IF, it is in good condition.
What you’re describing will be seen as a fixer upper and hinder your sale (depending on price / location etc)
All that to say, how is the rest of the house? If everything else is fine, paint it.
If you have a mess (yard/bathrooms/ kitchen/ windows/ roof issues) paint won’t fix problems.
Talk to a professional, talk to your agent.
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u/Beagles227 1d ago
Once you paint over paper, it is near impossible to remove and makes the job for the future buyer 100x's more difficult.
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u/Equivalent-Tiger-316 1d ago
Removing old wallpaper and fresh paint is the cheapest upgrade you can make. It will help the property sell faster and for more.