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After decades of house painting experience, I’ve learned that most people simply hate to paint.  But it is a well known fact that painting a home can have the maximum effect for a comparatively low investment when compared with other home improvements.  Many home owners think about painting only as a last resort but this is the worse area of your home to ignore if you are planning to place it on the market for sale.

There are several books on this subject and countless TV programs which endorse the idea of painting a house before trying to sell, but this is still often ignored.  Most rationalize that the new home owners will want to select new colors anyway after they move in.   This can be expensive mistake since in reality most home shoppers are looking for the home with clean neutral colors and doesn’t require any work.  Lets face it, today with so many homes for sale, the savvy homeowner wants the shopper to remember their home and to feel comfortable on that first visit.  If not, it is doubtful if there will be a second visit or an offer to purchase.

There are some simple home improvement painting tips that can help a home owner with his painting job.  One of the most irritating jobs associated with painting a house is ‘cutting in’.  If you can master this job, you’ll no longer hate painting.  Many people think painting is an easy job and they don’t appreciate the challenges of getting good results.  For example, walls and ceilings are almost never the same color, so the painter must create a sharp and straight line between it and the ceiling.  This is what is known as ‘cutting in’ and is easily the most critical part of any paint job.

Most professional painters recognize the benefit of using masking tape to create nice straight lines.  You’ll find the standard blue colored painter’s tape in just about any Home Depot or Lowes.  The tape is made to be easily removed and it will speed up any paint job.  The mistake that many new painters make is when using painter’s tape, they feel they can now just slop that paint on the wall as quickly as possible.  Again, another wrong assumption on their parts.  An experienced painter will still hold the paint brush at the proper angle and ‘cut in’ by using just the tip of the brush for best results.  You can use the same technique along baseboards as well as around windows.  In time, with enough practice you might be able to ‘cut-in’ rather then tape all areas.  When you reach this level of skill you’ll find yourself flying through your paint jobs.

Regardless of the time and effort needed though, painting your home before placing it on the market just makes good sense.