House painting is something that every DIY-er can do. After all, anyone can hold a paintbrush and dab a coat of paint on the wall. But if you want a more professional-looking finish, especially if you’re planning to sell your home soon, there’s no better way to achieve that than to hire the best residential painting companies in the Bay Area.
Painting a home, especially when a professional painting contractor does it, is one of the ways to increase property value. A recent Consumer Reports National Research Center survey reports that painting key rooms like the kitchen and bathroom can add 1% to 3% on your home sale while painting the exteriors (including paint touch-ups) can add 2% to 5%.
Apart from adding property value, painting is a relatively easy way of updating the interior and exterior. It makes your home look clean, refreshed, and brand new.
A professional residential painter can make that happen to your home, but how will you know if a particular painter is the right one to transform the look of your humble abode into a mansion? Check out some of the tips below:
- Search for painters online – Nowadays, the Internet is usually the first place people go to when looking for certain services, such as residential painting. You can go on Google or Yahoo, type in “house painters in the Bay Area” on the search bar, hit the enter key of your computer keyboard, and you will find some results for the Bay Area instantly. If they have a website, you can browse it to get more information about the painting company – their mission and vision, past projects, customer testimonials, street address, and contact information, etc. You may also check out their social media accounts like Facebook. Still, websites like Angi (formerly Angie’s List), Yelp, Houzz, and others can give you a more reputable list of residential painters.
- Check with a good house painter referral – The best way to get good painters, though, is still finding the ones that are recommended to you. Ask your neighbors, friends, relatives, and colleagues if they have had any good experiences with any of the local residential painters. There’s an excellent chance that if one of them suggests a painter to you, they will do a great job.
- Do a walk around your neighborhood – Great painting companies can be also be found from just around the corner. Do some leisure walk around your area and see if you can find a painting company. If you find one that’s still in operation as you pass, you can easily find out their name and how they can contact you. Then you can come back as they’re finished and see if you like their most recent work. Of course, you can also look up the company online to double-check its credibility.
- Find out if local paint stores can get good contractors for your job – You can also visit a local paint store and ask the employees about the local painting contractors to whom they supply their paints. Naturally, you will also want to ask them which of the painting contractors are reasonable. The employees will help by pointing you in the direction.
- Study and compare the estimates given by different painters to help you hire the right one – By now, you should have a few leads on who to hire. But to make sure that you’ll hire the right contractor, you should contact at least three painting contractors and ask each of them for the written estimates. Remember, getting a written estimate is very important if you don’t want to get ripped off once the project starts. A written estimate includes all the details, such as the number of coats of paint and the project start and end time. These are crucial factors that may pull or push in any way, so take your time to decide what’s best for you.
- Pay 10% of the job cost while signing the contract – After you have hired your choice painting contractor and agree on an agreement with them, it is customary to pay them a certain percentage at the start of their project. This is to help them shoulder the expenses for the paints and materials. It also indicates that you are serious about paying them the rest of the amount in the end. Paying the contractor the total amount (or more than 10% of the cost of the job) as a down payment is not usually recommended. Also, you can pay them if they leave the job unfinished. If the job is particularly a big one, it will make sense to pay your contractor half of the cost when they complete half the job, but you will have to discuss this with them.
Ensure that the contractor you’re interested in hiring is licensed, bonded, and insured. You can expect exceptional results when you’re working with the best residential painting companies in the Bay Area. Custom Painting, Inc. will do a walk-through before leaving and check-in to make sure you’re happy with it. Our work comes with a five-year warranty!
If you want to have your exterior, interior, or entire house painting done, contact Custom Painting, Inc. to schedule an appointment for a free estimate.