Paint a Room Fast: 5 Tips for Making Touch-Ups Before You Sell

If you’re looking to sell your house, you likely have a list of minor touch-ups and home improvement tasks you need to finish. These items might not seem like much, but once they’re compiled together in a list, you have hours of work ahead of you. One task, in particular, that most homeowners hate is paint touch-ups. You don’t want to set down tarps and covers to prevent drips but know that one wrong move of the brush can ruin your floor. Fortunately, it’s possible to turn this terrible task into a relatively painless experience. Follow these five tips to paint a room fast.

See If Cleaning Helps You Avoid Painting

The best way to paint a room fast is to not paint the room at all. Look at the markings and see if you really need to paint or if your walls just need a good cleaning. Many homeowners attempt to repaint their baseboards before they put the house on the market, which is tedious, backbreaking work -- especially if they just need a quick wash. The key to cleaning your walls is to use cloths and chemicals that are effective, but not abrasive. You don’t want to ruin your paint job by scrubbing too hard. Start with a damp, sudsy sponge and then see if you need to break out the paint.   

Clean Your Walls Before You Paint

One of the main benefits of cleaning the space before you decide to paint it is that you have to clean your walls anyway before you can complete your touch-ups. Use your sponge to lightly remove any dirt or dust on the surface to prepare the wall to be painted. We recommend cleaning all surfaces that you plan to retouch at once, making note as you go whether the wall needs paint or just a deep cleaning. However, this only works if you want to get your painting done in one day. If you clean a wall and let it sit for a week or two, dust could build up again. While you want to paint a room fast, you also want to paint it right. Leaving dirt and dust on the walls could cause bumps in the paint, making the work look shoddy. It could also cause the dust to mix with your paint to the point where you are just spreading it around your walls. Take the time to clean. You won’t regret it.  

Prepare the Room for the Paint

Paint touch-ups tend to become a hated project for homeowners because they take up so much of the room. You need to cover the workspace with drop cloths or tarps and line the borders with painters tape so you’re covered if the brush slips. While this part is laborious, it is important. Home buyers can spot a poorly-done paint job immediately, and the effort made to increase your home value will be for naught. There is good news for home sellers who want to paint a room fast, you really only have to prime and protect the areas that you intend to paint. If you’re only touching up a few spots, you might not have that much to line and cover.  

Find the Same Paint Color and Brush

Ideally, you will keep some of the old paint that you used on the wall the first time. If not, chip a little paint off the wall and bring it to be matched at your local home improvement store. You will also want to use the same kind of brush or roller that you originally used to maintain the same texture on the wall. If you want to make the touch-up less obvious, use a diluter to make the paint about 15% thinner. This will look better than a fully-thick patch over existing paint. You will also want to paint a little beyond the touch-up area to make the clean-up less noticeable. You don’t want a potential homebuyer to take one look at your wall and immediately notice the touch ups.   

Keep Pets, Kids, and Family Members Away

The last thing you want is to derail your painting efforts with a curious finger touching the wall or a dog’s tail brushing against the fresh paint. Once your work is complete, open a window to increase the ventilation and turn on fans and air conditioning in your space. Then make sure everyone stays out. Let the walls dry for at least a few hours (even a day for large spaces) before you let anyone touch the surface.

Check Out EffectiveAgents When the Work is Done  

Once you finish your home touch-up to-do list, work with a real estate agent who can sell your house fast. At Effective Agents, we use a sophisticated algorithm that sorts a large list of active real estate agents, best suited to help with your particular transaction.. We have agents who have sold in your neighborhood before and know the type of house and market you are working in. With this strong partnership, you can position your house in the best light possible and make sure it gets sold for a price you deserve. Find a Realtor® Near You