Paint your Hawaii house un-neutral to sell it!

Most people will tell you to paint your house "neutral colors" before you sell it, but I think you should reconsider. Neutral to most people means off white, which makes most houses seem very stark and uninteresting. If you're going to sell your house, I suggest you paint some rooms a nice soothing color that makes the trim stand out.

I like this green living room as an example. The furniture isn't anything special, just a couch and lamps, table, etc. But the nice soothing green paint really makes the white ceiling and crown molding stand out. Also notice the door is black. Nice contrast. Neutral colors in this room would make it boring to most buyers, who have seen a couch and lamps before.





You can do something similar in your kitchen. You don't want the kitchen to feel too cold or stark, Repainting it something nice like this light brown can be a great way to warm up the room.



When it's time to sell your Oahu house, you might even want to have me come over and suggest some colors for you. Colors that appeal to most buyers are usually greens, blues, browns, yellows. Stay away from red, purple, and black. Black is ok for trim, but not for walls. You're not selling a haunted house are you?

As for the outside, you might want to try what we did. We went to a new home tract in Hawaii Kai and asked the association manager for the color codes on some of the new houses they were building. The big builders spend big money on designers that choose all their colors, so we figured we would just use something that they chose, something we liked. So our house has about 5 colors inside and a nice light brown outside. Very modern looking colors, but also very soothing.

So take my tip, don't paint your house off white. Please.

Landscape your home, virtually

When it comes to selling a house, first impressions are huge. The landcaping is the first thing people see or don't see, depending on what your house has going on. I've seen some very average houses with great landscaping sell for top dollar because of the feel that the buyer had when they first saw the home.

I just saw this great software called Realtime Landscape Pro that allows you take a picture of your house and then impose on it your own custom landscaping design over the photo. This is a great idea for people thinking about how to lanscape their home. Since you can't really tell how things will look until you see them, this program is a great way to make sure you don't end up with something you didn't expect.

It's pretty easy to gorow things in Hawaii, with our year round sun and warm weather, so you can choose from almost any type of landscaping you can imagine. Also this program will let you change the color and texture of the heartscape, add waterfalls and pools, sprinkler systems, and create realistic photos and walkthroughs. What a great idea!

A pool is a huge asset to a house, so if you are thinking about getting a pool, this program will allow you to design your own and see how it will look before you ever start your project. I would say about 1/4 of my clients tell me that a pool is very important to their home purchase. In the hot areas like Ewa and Kapolei, a pool can make all the difference between loving your yard and never using it.

Another really cool feature about this program is that it allows you to take your created photo and turn it into night time visualization, so you can see how your lighting system will look, your pool lighting, etc. Awesome.

If you're thinking of selling your house in the next 3 years, let me recommend that you get started on your landscaping now. It's kind of lame to pay all that money, spend all that time, and then not be able to enjoy what you've done. So start now, let your plans grow and mature, and enjoy your landscaping while you still own the house.

Unless your house is at the top of your neighborhood's comps, you're probably not going to have to worry about over landscaping. The added value is tremendous, and as the plants grow, the value grows! Of course, you have to pay for the water in the meantime, unless you live in Manoa.