4 Paint Colors to Avoid on a Flip

By Christina El Moussa

If you’re working on a flip, you already know there are a million details you have to pay attention to. Rehabbing a house is not for the faint of heart, and once you’ve tackled all of the major challenges, it’s time to focus on perfecting its design scheme.
Striking the perfect balance between polished style and marketability used to be mine and Tarek’s biggest challenge, but design choices such as paint can make all the difference in boosting a home’s appeal. People at our Success Path Education seminars often ask about little details like these. Read on for an overview of the five worst colors for a flip.

Avoid Pink and Red Hues

There are a few hallmarks of effective rehabbing, but one of the most important ones is tailoring the design to a potential buyer. When you’re dealing with a flip, marketability trumps personal tastes. This is why paint in pink and red hues are best left out of the mix. Pink is typically read as a juvenile color, and red can be seen as aggressive. While they might look great, they are unlikely to produce the inviting effect you want your design to have on potential buyers.

Save Neon Hues for the Club

Just like red and pink, neon colors send the wrong signals. Though a house clad in radioactive paint hues of green may be your cup of tea, this appeals to a relatively narrow group of buyers. Anything too bright, as a matter of fact, will be more abrasive than welcoming. Once of the main tenets of rehabbing we teach at Success Path Education is creating a blank slate environment for buyers’ dreams. Neon is far from the polished neutrality you should be aiming for.

Never Go for Bright White

Bright white might seem like a safely neutral option, but it can actually be overwhelming when it covers entire walls. Its pristine color will only last so long before grime, stains and discoloration make it look shabby. In addition to its potential for getting dirty easily, it will reflect light more than any other color, which can make rooms seem blown-out and hot. What’s a better alternative? Slightly off-white colors make for a much better choice. They are neutral and welcoming without the abrasiveness that a pure white color may bring.

Shy Away From Too-Trendy Tones

You probably notice annual trend announcements proclaiming robin’s egg blue or dusty rose pink to be the color of the year. Indeed, there are colors that seem to capture the essence of a given year, but these trendy tones won’t be so trendy in a year’s time. Rather than subscribing to fads, consider some of the most timelessly attractive color schemes, and base your design of these instead. Colors based on trends will age quickly and badly, so you can skip the next big hue for a classic tone.

Whether it’s interior or exterior these paint tips and tricks are always good to keep in mind. Tarek and I like to keep trends in mind when it comes to style, but neutral tones are always a good idea when flipping homes. We have found these colors not only boost the homes aesthetic but also ups the value when it comes time to sell.

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