The purple house. Who in the world would paint their house purple? Every town in America has at least one purple house. Sequim has one, Port Angeles has one, and Port Townsend has one.
The Purple House
The purple house sticks out like a sore thumb in any community, but there’s another more subtle practice that buyers also find repulsive. Dark or gaudy colors inside a home push buyers away, and I know this from showing hundreds of buyers homes with gaudy colors. Most people don’t want a dark purple bathroom, or a green bedroom that is so bright, it blinds you when you first see it. So why do a small percentage of homeowners use gaudy colors that push buyers away?
Why Homeowners Paint The Purple House
Here’s what I’ve observed. A small percentage of homeowners are very artistic, very creative, and are what psychologists would describe as “right brained.” Some people are mostly left brained (engineers, accountants, biologists), and some are mostly right brained (artists, gardeners, authors of romance novels). But a few are nearly entirely right brained, and these are the incredibly creative people. Incredibly creative people often cannot see the world from the eyes of the rest of the world. So for them, that purple house or that dark purple bathroom is “touching and gorgeous.” The gaudy bright blue or green bedroom is “special.” They understand others may not like what they do, but they are so passionate about their creativity and how it makes them feel, they disregard the implications of their colors.
The implications of a purple house are that buyers will not buy it. Sometimes the uber creative personality does not look that far into the future when they may need to sell their home. They love their designs, colors, and the comfort of their homes so much, they feel compelled to paint that bathroom or bedroom dark purple. Even most of these incredibly creative people understand that they should not paint their house purple on the outside, but a few of them do fall off the wagon. Hence the purple house.
If you’re a buyer and you see a purple house for sale, or a house with gaudy colors inside, you do have a reasonable option. You can make an offer contingent on the seller either painting the house or rooms “normal” colors, or you could reduce the price of the offer so you can have it done after closing.
Still, you’ve got to love the purple house. From a distance.
Last Updated on September 7, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
