Probably a good idea.

If I were thinking of buying your house but a bedroom was blue and a bathroom was pink and the living room was gray and the kitchen was yellow, I would subtract several thousands of $$ from my offer.

I think it depends what it looks like now. Personally the idea of moving into a house and not repainting all the walls in any case is kind of foreign.

That is the one thing that makes a great first impression, fresh paint. Your home also looks nicer to show when all of the walls match. If it going to cost a lot of money just do the public areas. Best wishes for a swift sale!

Paint, whatever the color would not be a buying or a selling feature to me. I always know, that I am going to be repainting every single wall in a house, once its mine.

I’d want to repaint immediately even if it was carnival colored or blah white. If the house is clean, clutter free and smells good I’d probably never give it a second thought. I might grumble if I have to use a lot of Killz over black walls. Ha!

Yes, in general, white is best for showing prospective buyers. Most people want to make a newly purchased home their own and living with the previous owners color choices isn't always easy.

Size and location are most important. Painting is an easy DIY, and I will always change wall colors, so it doesn’t matter to me. Removing lots of wallpaper would make me crazy. How fast the house sells depends on your local market and the price. Does your realtor expect the cost of the paint job to increase the listing price plus a bit more?

Often realtors will advise all kinds of expensive changes such as new kitchens and baths. This is foolish advice in most cases to make the sale quicker for the realtor and the seller doesn't reap much in the way of rewards. However, paint is a relatively inexpensive or reasonable item to consider in preparation to sell.

A home filled with wallpaper is another issue. These homes drag on the market because of the effort and expense required to remove what is a very personal choice.

You as a seller have to assess the amount of rooms in the home that are painted in dated or vivid colors. If it were one room like a bath or bedroom and the remainder of the home was a neutral color, I'd say no. But, it every room is painted in a vivid fashion or each in a different color scheme you would want to consider painting them. You would want to neutralize them by painting them the correct white.

There are many whites. These chat boards are filled with people wanting to know how to find the correct white. I would seriously consider your realtor's advice in this instance and apply it as you believe appropriate to your property. This is one area where the effort may be appropriate.

I'm with most of the others: I expect to repaint 100% of the walls in any house I buy. So I wouldn't care. But I'm not all buyers. Others may see colors as cost/work.

Post some photos of the colored rooms and we might be able to gauge how much they would benefit from a repaint.

I think everyone expects to paint. its a plus to not have to worry about it from the second you move in. Idk a fresh coat of paint, as long as it doesnt break the bank is probably a good way to have people focus on the space and not be distracted by different colors.

We moved from California to PA about 5 years ago. I recall having the discussion with the paint store owner in CA that when people come in and want different colors for each room, he knows that they are from the East Coast. CA locals wanted a far more limited and neutral palette.

It's a regional thing.

I recall seeing realtor photos of homes in our PA target area back when we were still in CA, getting ready to sell our house. So many homes had different color rooms, and I'd share those with my realtors, and we'd all have a good laugh. They said that sure would not sell in Monterey!

If the paint is in good condition, I wouldn't bother. I couldn't have cared less about paint when I was house hunting, it's easily changeable.

My previous house was a split-level (in my market = lowest $/sq ft) with a screaming bright green kitchen, aubergine living and dining rooms, a couple of semi-dark neutral bedrooms, and the rest various shades of greige and creams. I sold it the first weekend with multiple offers above list. This isn't even when the market was super-hot (hot but not yet on fire). I had to laugh to myself when the seller asked me at closing if I was into feng shui, he liked my paint choices and thought I based them on that -- um...no...I just liked those colors LOL! So you never who wants what anyway.

Point: If the market is hot, the house will sell. Why spend money on changes that aren't needed. Yes, paint is cheap but labor is not -- if you DIY, have at it, but if you have to pay someone to paint, forget it.

Just my 2 cents...

Selling a house is about buyers envisioning themselves in your house. Painting isn't only about doing work so buyers don't have to, it is about creating a place where buyers want to live. If you have dark rooms then many buyers will feel you have a dark house and will avoid it. Bright and unusual colors (e.g. vivid pink bedrooms) invite buyers to form an opinion on the sellers that may not be complementary. Having no cohesive paint theme may make buyers feel the house is disjointed and unconnected, I try to stick with the same colors throughout but may change the shade a bit for dining rooms and/or master bedroom.

I am not pretending to be an expert but certainly this largely trumpets what experts have told me.

Unless you can do the painting quickly for a reasonably low price, it may not be worth keeping the house off the market and spending the money. Sometimes the best approach is to get it on the market as soon as you can, especially if the market in your area is cooling off. Talk with at least one more realtor and get their opinion on the bump in sales price you might get with new paint. 
What colors are the walls now? Are you selling the house before you move or will it be empty? When we sold our home of many years, we had already finished the remodel of our next house and moved. Although our walls looked good while we were there, we noticed dings and scrapes that weren't obvious while the house was occupied.  We did more painting than originally planned but it was easy because the house was empty. Had we been still living there, we probably wouldn't have painted anything more than the sunroom and powder room which both had dark colors and limited wall space. 
My daughter's room was a dark green and we painted it the same light green as the other bedrooms. She commented that it didn't look like her room anymore and I told her that was the point. It wasn't her room, it was a generic bedroom with light walls, oak floors, and white trim.

We too moved before listing our house, it was only a distance of a few blocks. We hadn't been house shopping and 'fell into' one DH loved. We moved week before Thanksgiving and I had several weeks to update, have a couple of repairs done (windows) before listing for the spring market. My living and dining room paint had been a faux terra cotta that suited me, but what I had in mind was neutralizing to appeal to the widest variety of house hunters. I painted all a neutral warm white, and painted extensive woodwork true white. It really did look fresh and welcoming when finished. I'm not sure if it made the difference, but the first 5 showings resulted in 4 offers first week. Sold.

Of course people in CA will spend tons of money making sure their house is painted in exactly the same neutral shades as every other house in CA - much better to adhere to one tiny sliver of a standard of beauty rather than celebrate the unique character of individuality.

ShadyWillowFarm …. ??? Generalizations not always accurate. I own two homes in CA , one coastal & one in the desert. Many of my coastal neighbors are artistic , creative people & their homes reflect their unique aesthetic. Same for my neighbors in the desert ( Palm Springs area ), some of the most unique & creative decor & architecture, Very odd & inaccurate comment.

DEF- I lived 38 years on the Great Lakes. A lot of dark days, rain and snow. I’ve been in
CA for 30, a lot of sunshine. I had a brick home back East and now I have stucco. I bought traditional furniture and have added transitional pieces over the years. Wall colors are similar and I’ve always used color.
Geographic areas have different styles based on history and environment are each equally beautiful and fascinating.

Increase resale value? I doubt it. Make it easier to sell, maybe. Given the market and lack of inventory in so many parts of the country I'm kind of surprised anyone does anything to sell a house right now.

A lot depends on what it looks like now, and how hot the real estate market is. Here, we've got people buying places sight unseen sometimes, and certainly buyers are prepared to make a lot of changes to places after they buy it. Personally, I wouldn't think it added to the appeal of the place, but I'm not most people (the apartment I bought has gorgeous contrast walls in every room except the living room, and I love it (and haven't changed a thing)).

We moved from Westchester Cty, NY to Florida. We lived in our NY home for 45 yrs. Many updates were done over those years. We put three kitchens in, new decks, skylights, bathrooms, etc. You get the picture.

We were selling in a terrible market. 2010 during the market crash and so many homes getting foreclosed. We lived in a very desirable area, close to NYC, acre zoned.

We bought our house during the downfall of the market in 1971. Now we were selling in a down market again.

My Realtor said to just refresh the house. We painted, had all the wood floors refinished. We had a in-ground pool and had a new pool fence put around it. We did a lot of 'refreshing' based on our Realtor's advice. We trusted her completely. We had to sell in a terrible, market. The whole idea was to speed up the sale, not lower the price.

It sold in 3 months. I was shocked how much interest we got in the house. After a month on the market, there was a price war and we followed our Realtor's advice throughout the whole thing.

We wound out selling way above our original asking price.

I am a big proponent of 'refreshing a house' so it looks clean and bright. We moved a lot of furniture out of the house to a storage unit. It made the house look so much bigger and felt spacious.

Paint the walls. Its a small investment. Fix whatever will catch the attention of a potential buyer. Look at your house as if you were the buyer. Clean everything, Shine/polish everything, Refinish floors, clean carpets, etc. You want it to make a good impression.

It worked for us.

Jane

"It worked for us."

It worked for you because you were selling in a down market -- in an up market, I don't think it's necessary. It won't hurt, or course, but might be unnecessary spending of time and money. (I'm talking about the repainting, refinishing floors, etc, not the clean and shine).

More interest = more money regardless of market conditions. That is kind of how supply and demand works. At some point the increase in money may not be worth the effort and expense to chase it, but that really depends on the home now, your ability to paint it, and the particulars of your market.

I'd paint. Not only does it 'freshen' a house, but a light color makes rooms look bigger. A neutral scheme lets the buyer envision himself living in the house. You'll surely empty the house of every personal item for the same reasons to create an impossible dream: The 'effortless living' house. First impressions count, starting with curb appeal.

Wall color is probably one of the lowest priorities for most people when buying a home. If some rooms are very dark (therefore feel smaller), they might benefit from an update. If you have an open concept and the space doesn't flow color wise, paint them.

Have you got a quote and timelines, as it will be quite costly, very disruptive and delay listing your home. If need be, you’ll have more room to negotiate then investing in repainting. Take a look at other listings’ interiors and go to open houses before spending thousands. Take the guesswork out. Did you get similar feedback from other agents at any point.

What does the interior look like? How old is the house?

The house we bought in Los Angeles near the beach had been repainted before resale, and we liked the neutral color on most of the walls and kept them. There was only one room that I did not like, but I still have not yet gotten around to painting it, and I have tried to work with the existing color.

The house that we have in the Palm Springs area (like K Laurence) also has pleasant neutral colors on the walls, and we have not changed those except in a bathroom that we renovated, and we are planning to change the colors in the kitchen this year.

I in no way feel compelled to change wall color when I move - we have so much art that we put on the walls and on furniture that wall color is a minor part of the decor. I would say that kitchens followed by bathrooms would be the exceptions.

I’m in the camp that eyerolls most of the things realtors tell people they need to do in order to sell their house, and painting sort of falls into that. But…the part of painting wherein your walls are freshened up I 100% agree with. You probably have more wall space in your house than any other surface, and so the idea of going over every inch of that surface cleaning, patching, repairing, etc is very important, a new color is just a byproduct of that endeavor.