Depends. What is your competition? Is your neighborhood/area a hot market?

All things being equal, a neutral fresh painted move in ready home could sway the potential buyer to a different house.

ETA: did you also post this on Buying and Selling?

Agree that it depends on the market. We just made an over-asking offer on a house that has terrible paint colors. But our local market is totally insane. I definitely won’t be painting my house to put it on the market.

Ask a Realtor. They should know what buyers in your area expect. I assume your paint isn't scruffy looking, right? Or super weird? I bet it's fine.

If you are going to list it empty, that money might be better spent on staging.

We didn’t paint other than the rooms where we stripped old wallpaper. Our paint though older was neutral and in good condition.

Joanie - I second Fori's advice to check with a Realtor or two. We removed wallpaper and painted a few rooms but everything else was already neutral and in good condition.

Since you plan on listing your home after you move out have you considered leaving photos that show how your rooms looked furnished?

We had one bedroom that was nearly empty. It was the smallest and I had been using it as a sewing room so it only had my sewing machine and a small folding work table. I thought it might be hard for prospective buyers to imagine the room as a bedroom so I found two older photos showing it with my DD's bedroom set in it and had 8 x 10 photos made and set them up on the table.

My realtor told me that several people commented that they found it helpful. He also said that empty rooms tend to look smaller.

Since I had known for over a year that we were going to sell our place I also made a point of taking photos of our landscaping during each season. My realtor printed copies and left them on the kitchen island for people to take. Since we listed our house in late winter the photos showed spring flowers, the open pool and patio in summer and fall foliage.

maire

Yeah, it depends. A couple of weeks ago I looked at 700 sf house with friends. It had a green dining room, brown living room, yellow kitchen, teal bathroom, one bright turquoise bedroom and one that was light slate color with a blush accent wall, and there was a bidding war that began within hours after it was listed, because it was immaculate and as perfect as a house that's more than 70 years old can be, other than crummy flip cabinets in the kitchen. I'm still waiting to see how much over list it sold for, and very bummed that my friends got outbid.

Maire.....great idea to take pictures before we empty the house! I hadn't thought of that. But darn....I just donated all the bedspreads as they wont work in the new house. Ill have to figure something out. DH is a good photographer so it shouldn't be difficult.

Existing colors....

the main floor is a mix of different shades of gray and goldy tans

MBR is pale gray and master bath is pale yellow

BR #1 is a pale sea glass/aqua

BR#2 is a dark mossy gray green....this room gets a lot of light

BR #3 is north facing and dark and is painted a sunny yellow

hall bath has colorful tile and is painted white

I don’t think any of the colors would be considered crazy or horrendous by buyers, even though they are not neutral.

Thanks again all.

If the colors are good, the next question is if the paint is in good condition. If so, then no need to repaint. If not, then yes. You might not know until you move the furniture...that's when you might find that something left a mark or a ding on the wall or whatever. We did repaint because so many of the colors I had were dark and of a specific taste...we went light and neutral. We also left furniture in the house to stage it, but we made sure it was all stuff DH and I could move on our own before closing.

Different expectations in different markets. Interview three realtors and ask all of them for their opinions on painting, staging, etc.

Yes, and look on Trulia, Zillow etc to see what the houses in your area that are on the market look like.