In the process..

Hi all! I am in the process of buying the house I am currently living in. The person that I am buying it from had 3 boys, who are very sweet, but also.. are boys. So the walls in some of the rooms don't look too great. I have the colors that were originally used when the house was built 5 years ago. But can I just paint over all the scratches and scuff marks? I tried washing the walls, even used a magic eraser but that seemed to be pulling off some of the paint so I stopped that quickly. I am just worried that if I paint the bad areas, the paint won't match due to it being 5 years old. I really don't want to have to repaint all of the walls and such, especially since the appraiser will be here sometime this month. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Welcome to the forums.

Depending on the damage, you may need to use joint compound to fill the voids. If so, then you would prime those areas before painting. Be warned, after five years the paint on the walls may no longer match the paint in the can. If so, the repairs may stand out.

 

Appraisers don't really look at things like paint condition AFAIK. Damaged walls and floors or missing/ damaged doors and trim maybe, but not just paint. They are all about does it match the tax/realtor property listing and what have similar local houses sold for.

 

I've done a lot of touch ups over the years and whenever you have to touch up old paint it is usually best to roll big sections. I've freshened up the paint on many rentals by rolling the affected walls, often you can skip the cut in although I've also done many where I just needed to cut in the bottom half. Since the paint has shown signs of wear the touch up needs to go however far until it reaches unworn clean paint.