Elgin, Interior Painting
Painting a house before selling it, about $5,700
These Elgin sellers were listing in 30 days. They were not renovating. They wanted the house to photograph clean and feel turnkey, so most of the money went into prep and repair, not coverage.
- Town
- Elgin
- Service
- Interior Painting
- Scope
- Pre-listing repairs, select repaints and whole house trim
- Published investment
- About $5,700$5,200 as quoted, and about $5,700 with the add-ons the sellers chose.David's write-up, September 2026
- Time on site
- A few days. The trim alone was a full day for one painter.
The video
David on this job
What was in the scope
- Master suite: skim coat a failed faux finish, then repaint all walls to match the foyer color
- Master closet: caulk a gap in the trim and spot paint
- Foyer: repaint the blue walls to the office color, two coats, walls only
- Select ceilings: touch up blue overspray and gray spots with matching ceiling paint
- Access panel: a quick white touch up
- Downstairs blue walls: repaint to the corner, in the foyer color
- Office: patch nail holes and old anchor holes, then one coat
- Office ceiling: cut out and repair, then attempt a color match
- Trim, whole house: 8 hours, one painter, a brush and white paint, every scuff and line
In David's words
What drove the number
Five things moved the number on this house.
- Repaint versus touch up. A wall repainted in two coats costs more than a wall spot fixed. The blue walls got repainted, and the office got one coat because one coat was enough.
- Whether we can match what is there. On the office ceiling the plan was to cut out a piece and match the existing paint. If it matches, it is a repair. If not, the whole ceiling gets primed and painted, and the sellers hear that number before we do it.
- What is under the paint. The master bedroom had an old faux finish. That wall gets skim coated first, and skim coating is drywall work, not painting.
- Holes and dings. The office had old anchor holes. Each one is patch, sand, prime and paint.
- Consistency. The sellers started with touch ups in a couple of rooms, then chose to repaint whole walls so every wall in the room matched. That moved the job from $5,200 to about $5,700.
Photos
Finished work like this
From our reviewed work photos. The library is not sorted by job, so these are not necessarily from this house.
Your house is not this house, but the math works the same way
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