Industry Insight—The Worth of a Professional Paint Job

Painting the interior or exterior of your home or rental property can be an easy decision to consider. You may be looking to put a fresh coat of paint on a home you plan on living in for years to come, or you may be looking for a way to quickly increase the property value of a home you’re looking to sell. Either way, painting your property is an excellent first step. A fresh coat of paint can make a room feel brand new and it will certainly revitalize the energy in a space that once felt closed in or dirty.

On the other hand, you may be a property owner looking to rent out a current property. If this is the case, a good exterior and interior paint job could be the key to attracting the kinds of tenants you’re looking to lease with. However, attracting these kinds of tenants can be difficult when your property doesn’t look as good as it could. With a professional paint job, you’ll make your property look more attractive and friendly.

Listen to Elite Trade Painting’s Mike Benteau, president of paint contractors at Elite Trade Painting, to hear his expert industry perspective on the best painting practices. He’ll also uncover the value of hiring a professional painting team, give tips on how you can save money on your next painting project, and explain how something as simple as paint can raise the desirability of your property exponentially.

Paint Is a Wise Investment

If you are a property manager or owner, you want to keep your property in tip-top shape. Benteau says,

“Painting is the most cost-effective form of maintenance for any property manager in that it can revitalize and change the space for the least amount of money.”

When it comes to property management, you want to attract the right tenants or keep the ones you currently have contracted happy. Happy tenants stay at your property longer and are more likely to take better care of your land. If you’re looking to increase your tenant’s satisfaction with your management firm, then a new paint job is probably your best option. With nearly 40 years of experience in the business, Benteau notes that this is often a service offered by high-end property managers. They frequently offer to repaint a property every four to five years, even when they aren’t obligated to do so. A new paint job every five years or so, about a year before renewals, can make an enormous difference in tenant retention.

Benteau talks about how paint can totally alter how a room feels.

“Rather than a tenant moving to another spot, sometimes you can change the environment, so they have less motivation to find something different,”

says Benteau.

“It seems to invigorate the staff and the tenants. Painting is probably the lowest-cost renovation that they can do, and it has the biggest bang for the buck.”

While Benteau explains the value of a new paint job, he also suggests that any property manager should also think about hiring a designer for consultation before putting any paint on the walls. This would be called a designer colour change, and it can greatly increase the quality of the final product. A designer will help pick colours that best fit a space. This will make the room more welcoming while ensuring that the paint colours are the most attractive fit possible. Depending on the designer, the price of a designer consultation may vary.

However, the beauty of the completed job often makes the excess expense worthwhile.

An excellent paint job makes an excellent first impression. And when it comes to renting a property, first impressions are a key deciding factor for many tenants. Plus, a clean professional-looking paint job is an excellent indicator that the management company takes good care of the property.

“Space improvements by landlords are often done to attract tenants. Painting is one of the cheapest to do. Having quality work being done for the project is vital to the establishment of long-term relationships,”

Benteau continues explaining.

“Many will utilize the best price [for a contractor], with little inspection for quality, which in the end, starts a relationship off with a bad impression.”

This is important to consider. Finding a cost-effective but untrustworthy painting crew is a trap that anyone can fall into. You don’t just want to paint the home or property–you want it painted well. Plus, when you choose to pick a professional team to do your paint job, you can build an ongoing relationship with them. When you choose a reputable firm, you can trust them to do more work with you in the future.

This goes for property managers and for homeowners looking to repaint their houses. Repainting your home can increase your contentment at home, make spaces feel more welcoming, and revive spaces in your home that you don’t use often. Taking the advice property managers utilize on their properties to keep tenants happy can help you be as satisfied in your house as you were when you first bought it.

Hiring Professionals: Protecting Your Property and Your People

In any contracting job, the health and safety of the individuals who live in the space should be the priority. This includes worrying about the worker’s health as well, something an unlicensed team of painters may not consider. Benteau assures homeowners and property managers that nearly all commercial paints are LEED compliant. That means that they contain little to no volatile organic compounds (called VOC) which are the elements in paint that can be toxic.

This means that any paint a professional painting team will be using on your property should be safe for everyone working and living there. So, if you’re looking to paint a home or to paint a workspace, you won’t need to worry about having the building be completely empty during work hours.

“There are still some products that we use that do have nasty smells, but for the most part, those are specialty products that you use after hours or when no one is around,”

he says.

“The majority of our projects in the last 10 years are done while people continue to work. It is important for your contractor to work with your tenants to coordinate the project and to work professionally with consideration at all times to the work environment and being aware of all safety concerns that exist.”

Also, realize that special paints need to be used in different circumstances. If you’re painting the exterior of a building, there are exterior paints made specifically for the task. These paints are not just a better fit for withstanding the outdoors, they ensure that a building remains structurally sound by preventing moisture and leaks from entering the exterior walls. Proper application of exterior paint can be vital for secure moisture protection. Hire professionals to make sure the right paint is used and effectively applied no matter where you need it.

Save Money without Cutting Quality

Benteau offers some worthwhile tips for anyone still looking to save some money on their paint job while still hiring the right people for the job. These helpful tips can help you save money on a range of painting projects.
Think about getting your painting project done during general work hours or while any possible tenants may still be in space. After-hours and night work are often more expensive than work done during daylight hours.
Another tip is to schedule work to be done during a time of year that is less busy for painters. You’re more likely to get a deal on hiring a professional during the winter months, when painters are generally in less demand than at other times of the year. Benteau says that you may even save up to 20% on a project that you schedule during a seasonal lull in demand.

Prep your surfaces. Prepping a surface before painting may seem like a costly thing to do upfront, especially if you must clean and prepare an exterior of a building. However, much of the maintenance that must be performed on a paint job each year needs to be done because the paint job wasn’t applied to the best surface possible, says Benteau. Choosing the right preparations system for the exterior of your building can increase the longevity of your paint job by up to 10 years.

Consider Who Will Be Doing Your Painting Project

When you think about all the benefits of adding a new coat of colour to your property, you may feel a burst of inspiration. However, you may not realize that getting the job done can be more difficult than you might think. Re-painting an entire home—interior or exterior—can be a lot of work, messy, and can turn out less beautiful than what you envisioned if you choose to do it yourself or hire a painting team just because they’re the most cost-effective.

That’s why hiring a professional painting team is an important investment for anyone who wants a beautifully painted house. Finding a good contractor is the first place to start.

Any contractor you find to work on your property should treat your tenants like their own clients. This means that the contractor is thinking about the needs of the people who are currently using the space you plan on painting. Likewise, if you’re a homeowner. A contractor should be interested in completing your project well. They should care about proper wall preparation and will make sure that your personal items are protected. This ensures that all parties will be satisfied at the end of a project.

“We try to make [the tenants] happy so that the property manager doesn’t have to worry about what’s going on with the job site,”

says Benteau.

“As a property manager, you want a contractor that has that respect and that mindset.”

What to Expect from a Good Contractor

When you get to the consultation phase with a contractor the next step should be a thorough site inspection before work begins. After that, the contractor should come back to you will a detailed price estimation for project completion. This would ensure that there are no hidden costs that you’ll have to worry about down the line or once the project has already started. Also, check to make sure that the contractor has proper liability insurance, in the unlikely event of an accident during your project.

Assurance that a contractor has liability insurance is another benefit of making sure you hire a professional painting team. This makes sure that you aren’t at all responsible for medical costs or lawsuits in the case of an accident.

A good contractor will also make sure that they can get the project done within your schedule. They will inform you if your expectations are inaccurate as to the time it will take to complete the job properly. They should also inspect the job after the work is done with you, to ensure that everyone is satisfied with the work before calling it finished.

What Can You Do to Make a Job Go More Smoothly?

To get the most out of your paint job, make sure to clean the walls and empty the spaces out. A good contractor should make sure the walls are smooth, nail holes are covered, and necessary sanding is done before a project starts, but doing this yourself can help save time if you need the project done quickly.

In Conclusion

A paint job is a seemingly minor but constant factor in your daily use of space. Ensuring that you have a professionally done paint job can help make a room more valuable and attractive. Whether you’re a homeowner or a property manager, a fresh coat of paint can be the most cost-effective way of increasing the attractiveness of your property.

Think about hiring Elite Trade Painting for your next paint job. Contact us and find out if we can help you make your painting dreams a reality!