What Color Siding Is Best For Resale?
What color siding is best for resale? It’s a question we’re asked by just about every client we build a home for. If your building or remodeling a home for resale then this question is super important to get a good answer too. The entire home should be designed to maximize resale value which includes your siding color. And even if you don’t intend to sell the home right away, you may in the future, so picking a color that maximizes resale value might be a good idea. Siding color will definitely be a big factor when you sell the house. We see beautiful homes with ugly siding sit on the market all the time. Buyer’s don’t want to spend the time and money having to reside the home themselves and they don’t want to live in an ugly house.
The siding color of your home plays a major role drawing in potential buyers. Because the more buyers you have bidding the more you’ll increase resale value. The color of the house is always one of the first things potential buyers notice. Think about it. Do you know how hard it would be to sell a pink house. And the color of your siding can play a big part in whether or not your house even sells at all. Real estate is very competitive. You want to be the nicest home on the block not the ugliest.
How does the exterior color or siding of your home impact it’s resale value? What color or combination of colors offer the best resale value and make buyers more likely to buy your home? And what siding colors should you not choose for your home? We’ll answer all this and more ahead.
Gray cedar shake with white Azek trim
Does Siding Color Effect Resale Values
Yes. It absolutely does.
If your planning on selling your home then maximizing it’s resale value is key. There are a lot of factors that go into determining the selling price of a home. Square footage, how good the schools are, taxes, the area you live in and the health of the overall real estate market and economy are all very important. Of course you’ll want to get top dollar for the home and curb appeal is an important factor in doing that. Most things effecting the sale price of your home are out of your control. But choosing the right color siding to get the most you can at resale isn’t. This is why figuring out what color siding is best for resale is so important. It’s one of the few things you can control, it has a huge impact on home value and it’s such a simple thing to do.
When a potential buyer drives up to your home or even sees a picture in a listing they’ll make a snap decision if they like it, love it, or hate it. A negative first impression is so hard to change. Even if they like everything else about the house, nobody wants to live in an ugly house. For most home buyers liking how the house looks is number one on their list.
On the other hand if they love how the house looks it’s much easier to get them to bend on some other features inside. The siding color is the first and last thing that home buyer see’s when they check out the house so the choice of color is super important.
How Do Siding Colors Effect Resale Value?
Your home’s exterior color scheme, which is mainly determined by the siding, plays a big part in determining its curb appeal and therefore it’s resale value. There’s a general going rate per square foot that homes sell for in any given area. You can’t do anything about it. If your in Beverly Hills your house will probably sell for more than if you lived in Detroit. And the economy plays a big role too. Selling a home in the middle of a recession won’t get you as much money as if you sold it during a housing boom. However, no matter the location or market your in, with a great siding color scheme and maximum curb appeal, you can list your home at a higher asking price than the competition and sell at the top of the market.
The big question is,
How does siding color add or take away from your home’s value?
First, what’s the best siding color for resale value is a very broad question where context matters. There’s no one size fits all answer. You have to take a number of different factors into consideration when making your color choices.
- The neighborhood: When your selecting the best color siding for resale value you have to consider the local real estate market and your neighborhood. All real estate markets are local. Even within the same town home styles, values, sizes and colors can vary a great deal. If you live in say, Miami, where the houses are all sorts of bright colors, don’t choose a dark gray siding. The local market could reject it. However, if you live here at the Jersey Shore where neutral colors are super popular, dark gray would be a great choice.
- Architectural style: Always take the style of your home into account when choosing the right siding and trim colors. Especially if it’s a specific, well known style like a Colonial or Victorian. These types of homes bring expectations with them. For example, a Colonial home is generally sided white or some other light colored neutral. That’s what the buyers of Colonials want. However, if you have a Victorian home then buyers expect a more colorful palette.
- Homeowner’s Association requirements: Some neighborhood’s have a homeowner’s association that dictates what colors you can and can’t use. Be sure to follow their requirements if your siding the house otherwise fines could be levied and a home buyer won’t want to pay them.
Of course, as a homeowner, you can choose whatever color you want. However taking these general factors into account will give you your best shot at maximizing your resale value.
Don’t do anything crazy.
The last thing you want is to be the ugly house on the block sided all sorts of crazy colors. Standing out in a crowded real estate market is good but not if it’s for all the wrong reasons. You want to get attention by choosing a beautiful siding color that everyone loves not push potential buyers away with terrible color choices.Bad colors really can ruin the look of the entire home making it almost unsellable.
Every neighborhood has that house that’s just plain ugly. Just down the road from me growing up there was a bright purple house with blue shutters and a front door that looked like a grape. This is all great if for some reason you really love purple and it makes you happy but good luck getting top dollar at resale. That’s if you can even sell the place. Every potential buy will factor in the cost of residing the house if the absolutely hate the color.
Neutral Siding Colors Are The Best For Resale Values
Neutral colors are by far the best for resale value because they appeal to the broadest group of potential buyers. Now, of course you still have to take into account everything we discussed earlier because this is a general statement. But overall these colors are your best bet. Even if you lived in a neighborhood of super bright, bold colors you could still get away with a light neutral.
When it comes to figuring out what the best color siding for resale is it’s also important to pick a color that doesn’t turn many buyers off. It would be tough to pick a color that every buyer absolutely loves. In fact it’s probably impossible. But it’s much easier to pick a color that most people won’t hate. Neutral siding colors fall into that category.
Some buyers will love the siding colors you pick, some will like them, some may think they’re just ok. But very few will hate them.
Bright, bold, drastic siding colors have a much higher potential to turn off potential buyers. It’s easy to see someone saying “I would never live in that bright red house”. But just about anyone could live with a neutral colored one.
Below are some pics of our favorite siding colors that are sure to maximize resale value:
Best Siding Colors For Resale Value
Mid Toned Browns
Brown in general is considered a great siding color for resale value. It adds a welcoming, soft feel to your home that doesn’t put many people off. Some buyers will love it, some will like it. But not that many will hate it. This home is beautiful. The combination of medium brown siding, white trim, mahogany front door and real stone looks fantastic. The addition of all the custom siding accents and trim pieces adds to the overall appeal.
Siding a home like this one is sure to maximize your curb appeal and resale value.
Medium Gray Siding Adds Resale Value
Just about any shade of gray is a safe bet these days but this mid toned gray cedar shake impression with white Azek trim and a dark brown entry door is a beautiful combination that sure to do wonders for resale value. Gray looks great with almost any style or size home and can be used with a wide variety of other colors.
Gray siding is especially nice when combined with masonry products like real stone or red brick. And it really shines against natural colors like brown which is what we see here for the front door.
Gray is such a versatile neutral that it’s really hard to go wrong with. That’s why its considered such a safe option when considering the best siding colors for resale.
Light Gray
Here we see another gray although this time on the light side. Just like with medium or even dark gray siding it looks fantastic. Really any gray will maximize curb appeal and resale value. This shade looks great against the colors in the real stone and that stained front door.
White looks really nice with gray which is why it’s almost always the color of choice for trim work, columns and railings.
Another benefit of gray siding is it looks good with concrete. This is a big plus if your finishing a home on a budget since concrete’s pretty cheap as far as masonry products go.
Blue Siding
Blue is a fantastic siding color choice to consider if you want to get the most value for your home at resale. It looks great with white Azek trim which is super popular at the moment and even better with masonry products like red brick.
Earth tones look good with blue too. A stained real wood front door and hardwood decking are really nice touches. You won’t scare away any potential buyers with a color palette like this one.
Just about any shade of blue works well but we’d stick to mid tones. Don’t go too light but dark colors are generally ok. And we’d recommend a blue that’s on the grayish side. Gray goes with just about everything and having just a small tint of blue makes it that much nicer.
Light Neutral Siding Colors Are Great At Boosting Curb Appeal
A tan or wheat colored siding is a great pick if you want to get the most money for your home at resale. Light neutrals are a solid choice because the colors go great with white trim and other darker colors. These lighter shades fall back a little which allows all those accents to really shine.
Red brick looks fantastic with this light neutral wheat cedar shake siding. The white trim also works beautifully and so does the stained wood front door.
With siding colors like this it’s really hard to go wrong.
White Siding
White is a super safe siding color if your thinking about resale values. With white you really can’t go wrong. It’s a super basic color choice that’s so neutral it goes with everything you put it with. The key with white siding is selecting the surrounds colors.
Since white is so neutral it really needs other elements to draw attention for it. Real stone or red brick are great additions and so is a stained real wood front door which is what you see above. White trim looks great with white siding but so does black. The new trend in home design is transitional. A home with white siding and black framed windows looks stunning. Check it out if you really want your home to stand out.
Neutral Green Siding Tones Increase Home Resale Value
Green is a great siding color for a home but the shade should be on the neutral side with a muted tone. Gray green is what we recommend. Anything too bold or bright can be a turn off. In general we recommend our clients save the brighter colors for accents like the front door.
The real stone veneer works so well with the green because they’re both natural color tones.
Black accents go with everything and so does white trim so they’re very safe choices.
The real attention grabber are the bright reddish doors. It’s a bold choice that’s safe to make here. Even if the buyers don’t love it, it’s cheap and easy to paint a few doors.
Darker Shades Of Brown
Brown is a very safe siding pick in terms of getting the most out of your resale value or even boosting it. In some cases you can get more than the top level homes are selling for in your area. If you plan on testing the ceiling of the real estate market then you’ll need a great siding color. Consider dark brown.
Don’t go too dark like the coffee bean finish you see here on the front door. Something a little above a mid tone will do. This way you can still play with the other dark and light colors around the siding. Here you see a very dark front door with bright white trim, a mid toned roof and mid tones real stone veneer. The real stone is a nice tough. Natural colors always look great next to one another and the variety of colors throughout the stone really pop in places.
When answering what color siding is best for resale think of the home’s colors as a complete package. Even though the siding is by far the main color all the supporting colors are really important too.
Real Wood Siding Will Add Resale Value To The Right Home
It wouldn’t be a complete list of great siding colors if we didn’t include real wood. It’s super high end and a beautiful siding material however you really need the right home for it. Most homeowners won’t want to deal with the long term maintenance required to keep wood looking like the pic shown above. If you don’t stain and seal cedar regularly it’ll turn gray.
The reason we included it on the list is because in some areas of the country, including coastal spots here in NJ, cedar shingles are a must have.
Because they’re a real, natural material they look best when paired with other real materials like stone and red brick. White and brown also go perfectly with cedar as do a lot of other dark colors. It’s a pretty safe siding pic and easy to work with.
Cedar siding will never be a mainstream color choice but in terms of a homes resale value in relation to it’s siding color, if you live in in an area where the homes are all cedar shake, then you have to at least consider it as an option.
Siding Colors To Stay Away From
Now that we’ve gone over some of our top siding colors for resale value let’s talk about some of the colors you should avoid. These will most likely all seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people actually choose them which drives away potential buyers and kills resale value.
Here are a few shades to avoid when picking a color for your home’s exterior:
- Orange. Don’t even think about it unless you live in a rare location like Miami beach or New Orleans where orange siding is considered appropriate. This is true of most of the colors on this list. Bad siding colors that hurt resale value are all location specific and lack broad appeal.
- Bright Blue. Just about any color with the word bright in the title is bad except under certain circumstances.
- Purple. We’ve seen purple used in great ways before because there are some really nice shades but it’s more of an accent than a main siding color. Again location specific.
- Pink. Even among the other bright, location specific colors this ones tough. If you look up the most beautiful homes throughout the world I doubt you’ll find any pink ones.
- Black. Believe it or not there are clients who side their homes black. It’s a bad idea and you’ll feel it at resale. Not many people want to live in a black house.
- Pastels. Again, this is very location specific. Pastels may work in Key West but in most places they’re a turn off.
When trying to choose the perfect siding color for resale always remember to choose something appropriate for the area, your home’s style and something that most people would love. Try not to turn away buyers with a color that’s weird or stands out for bad reasons. The home has to be colored the right way for the client’s your looking to sell to.
You want your home to be something you love but you also want it to attract a wide variety of potential buyers when your selling.
Conclusion
If you’re thinking about siding your home before you put it on the market or want to do it for yourself then consider one of the siding colors from our list. Siding is a must have part of any home and the color is super important if you want to get the most value at resale.
We hope a few of the pics we’ve shown above inspire you to create a spectacular looking home. Check back, we update these pages with new pics all the time as we get them. If you’ve got any pics you’d like us to showcase send them over.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to e-mail us any time. We’d love to hear from you.
