How Wall Paint Color Almost Made Me Cry

Our first house had amazing structure, was in a fabulous neighborhood and it was zoned for the second best elementary school in Virginia Beach. It was located 15 minutes from NAS Oceania with an awesome location out of the landing pattern.

What could be wrong right? Wrong! The inside of the house was just awful. The House had:

• No closet systems.
• A non-functioning master bathtub and shower.
• Missing cabinets in the guest bathroom.
• A missing sink in the guest bathroom.
• The kitchen cabinets’ paint was destroyed.
• The carpet was disgusting.
• The 1/3 acre backyard was overgrown.
• The fence gate was destroyed.
• The walls in every room were nicked.
• Every door handle had glue, stickers, or paint on it.
• The paint job in every room was ruined.
• There was only one light fixture in the entire house.
• The garage door was permanently sealed shut.
• Huge hole under the sink
• The laundry room needed to be new plumbing.
• The half bath was disgusting and unsalvageable.

We KNEW this house needed worked and had planned for the some of these issues, but Murphy still won.

We had planned on spending the entire week fixing the house. Instead of closing Monday on the house and having until Sunday, we closed Friday night. Thank goodness for an awesome realtor letting us in 8 hours early and my dad (Dad of the year award)!

We repainted the entire house in two days. A 1,650 square foot home with molding in 2 days! We worked 15 hour days to get the house done so our furniture could arrive. Most of the rooms required two coats of paint because they were so bad. After almost killing ourselves to get it down, the house was freshly painted and looked amazing!

Fast forward 15 months later. My tenants decided to ask if it would be ok to change the paint color and repaint the house. I almost cried. All I could think of was the work we put into that house and all the money. I put on a smile and told them it was fine as long as it was done in a professional manner and I approve of the color. This made our tenants happy at no personal expense.

When I think back on that situation, all I can think is, thank goodness for professionalism! Otherwise, I would have cried my eyes out over my tenant’s request to repaint. Moral of the Story: Real Estate = Business. When you give your keys to the tenants you need to check your feelings at the door. Otherwise your business will suffer.

What is your opinion? Do you allow your tenants to paint or update the home?