Painting the exterior of your home always increases the value, whether your planning to keep or sell your home. In addition to the fresh, new look you create with new paint, an exterior paint job also forces you to make necessary repairs to your home that can actually decrease its value if left unattended.

An exterior paint job when keeping your home will still raise your property value, as well as the property value and satisfaction of your neighbors. Especially if you ever plan to take out a second mortgage or home equity line of credit, you will be putting increased equity into your home by raising its value with a paint job.

When you have your home appraised, peeling paint and rotting wood will lower its value; therefore, eliminating these problems will raise its value in the eyes of an appraiser. Refinishing the outside of your home can increase its value by as much as $25,000 or more, depending on the size of your house. Since the cost of painting your home is significantly lower than the increase in value it creates, this is a very effective way to make an investment that provides an immediate return.

Whether or not to paint your home before you sell it is a question that many sellers are asking in the current buyer’s market. Since fresh interior paint is often the first thing a buyer will do to personalize their new space, it may seem like a waste of time and money to make such an improvement. Although a fresh coat of paint and the clean look it produces will certainly help sell your home, if a buyer plans to repaint in his own choice of colors regardless, he may not consider your efforts a selling point or a factor that warrants an increase in your asking price.

A new exterior paint job on a home for sale is another story, however. The condition of the outside of your home is the first thing that any potential buyer will see, and first impressions are extremely important. If a potential buyer sees that the outside of your home is rundown with peeling paint, rotting wood, or missing trim boards, his first  impression of the house will be that you haven’t taken very good care of the inside either. You can use a fresh exterior paint job to draw people inside to see more, rather than causing them to turn down a showing.

Exterior paint means making necessary repairs too. Before you can paint the outside of your home, there’s usually a lot of prep work to be done. Exterior prep work can include any or all of the following:

• Scraping off old, peeling paint
• Sanding and primering any bare wood
• Caulking any cracks in the woodwork or spaces between the siding and trim
• Replacing rotten wood or missing trim
• Fixing any damaged or loose siding or trim

While this sounds like a lot of work in order to get ready to paint a house, it should be considered a good thing because it forces you to make repairs that will not only make your home look nicer, but also keep it in solid condition. One of the worst things you can do to the exterior of your home is fail to treat any raw, bare, or exposed wood, since the elements will quickly cause that part of the house to rot. It’s much easier to treat bare wood now than to replace it later.

No matter what kind of climate you live in, both the constant and changing weather conditions cause wear and tear on your house. A hot, sunny climate will cause paint to fade and peel on the south and west facing sides. A wet climate causes wood to rot at a much faster rate than a dry one. And a climate with lots of freezing and thawing weather will do the most damage to a wooden house (and paint job) as the materials expand and contract with the changing temperature. Depending on your climate, you may need to repaint your home’s exterior every five to ten years in order to prevent permanent damage.

Stucco versus Siding. One way around the dilemma of the regular paint jobs that are necessary with a wood-sided house is to have it stuccoed. Although stucco can crack over time, it is repairable. Stucco lasts longer without needing repairs and can sustain more wear and tear caused by the weather and other elements. Stuccoing your home increases the quality of its insulation, keeping it warmer inside in the winter and cooler in the summer. Stucco will also increase the value of your home even more than an exterior paint job.

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