Keep the paint or pitch the paint?

[MCgrease08]

My fiance and I are having a "discussion" about what to do with cans of old house paint when selling a house, and I wanted to know what INGO thinks.

Here are the two arguments:

A) Leave any cans of house paint in the home for the new buyer so they can do any touch-ups if they want after they've moved in.

B) Pitch the cans of house paint because leaving them creates additional work for the new owners who now have to dispose of it.

What say you INGO?

Would you leave any paint for the buyers if you sold your house? Would you want the seller to leave any paint for you if you're the new owner?

This assumes you don't have a chance to directly ask the buyer whether they want it or not.

I'm also leaving out details about which side I am on to not try and influence the poll.

 

[JCSR]

How bout asking the new owners ?

 

[HoughMade]

Personally, I would leave 1 can of each color that matches something in the house and pitch the rest. If nothing else, the can usually has the code on it and will be information to use for matching.

This is what I did when I moved.

 

[Ingomike]

Personally, I would leave 1 can of each color that matches something in the house and pitch the rest. If nothing else, the can usually has the code on it and will be information to use for matching.

This is what I did when I moved.

This is the correct answer. Couldn’t have said it better so quoted it…

 

[dvd1955]

I'd pitch it all. Each time we moved the wife insisted on painting everything no matter how nice the existing paint looked.

 

[Jaybird1980]

It depends on how many cans of paint we are talking about. I'm in agreement with HM advice.

I don't see a reason you couldn't just ask the buyer at closing what they want though, or have the realtor ask the new buyers.

 

[printcraft]

Leave it. Do you know how many shades/tints of white there are?
Because I sure don't and it's almost impossible to match an off white from scratch.

 

[Dirty Steve]

I left the lids. If they wanted to know the color then they had the code. I figured they would not want to have to pay to get rid of my old paint if they intended on repainting.

Dirty Steve

 

[Cameramonkey]

Leave it. It doesnt cost you anything and helps them.
I HATE HATE HATE when outgoing tenants go out of their way to make it harder for the new tenant. I work in IT. My duties include running network cables.

When I exit a building, I leave all physical infrastructure in place. There is no reason for me to waste my time ripping out the data racks, cabling, etc. I cant reuse most of it, and it wont help me to yank it out. Make the next guy's life easier. If HE decides he doesnt like the existing infrastructure, he can rip and replace. And if I do remove a rack, I carefully disconnect the patch panels from the rack and feed them up and out of the enclosure so they can be fitted back into a new enclosure and reused. I dont act like a douche and cut the wires at the top of the rack.

When I go into a new to us building, it blows my mind when I find they cut cables or removed wall plates. Why? Are you that cheap? Petty?

The worst one in my 25 year career happened earlier this year. We purchased a virtually new building from Progressive Insurance. it had a GORGEOUS server room. Very neat and clean. Professionally installed and bonded racks, dressed cables, firestopped sleeves, etc. Station wires were run a little odd, but I could work around it. I told my bosses we were good to go and not to plan on any cabling costs. I could move them into the new building and have them up and running in an afternoon.

Then I got on site to move them in. I connected the jacks at the head end based on the well marked outlets. But I couldnt get any links. So I started toning out the wires. Not a single one in the offices could be detected in the rack. So I started popping ceiling tiles. That is when the headaches started.

So my working theory is that they shut the building down during covid. During that time the local IT staff was notified that after they shut the building down, their services would not be needed anymore. So apparently during the cleanout they went through and cut most of the cables above the walls, removed the faceplates, shuffled them, and then reinstalled all of the faceplates in random order. And there was no map. So not only were the faceplates marked wrong, but the wires were disconnected and unusable. My guess is they expected Progressive and their replacements to take the hit. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the staff, they decided to sell the building instead of bringing it back up after Covid.

What should have been an afternoon of attaching patch cords turned into 2 days of cutting service loops down and using that extra slack to allow us to move wires to a wall plate close enough to function.

Moral of the story, dont be a d**k.

 

[Ark]

Personally, I would leave 1 can of each color that matches something in the house and pitch the rest. If nothing else, the can usually has the code on it and will be information to use for matching.

This is what I did when I moved.

Yep. It's just a courtesy. They don't need a whole hoard of paint, just what a reasonable person would keep for fixes and touch ups.

New buyers usually go hog wild with new paint anyway.

 

[yeahbaby]

Leave it. It doesnt cost you anything and helps them.
I HATE HATE HATE when outgoing tenants go out of their way to make it harder for the new tenant. I work in IT. My duties include running network cables.

When I exit a building, I leave all physical infrastructure in place. There is no reason for me to waste my time ripping out the data racks, cabling, etc. I cant reuse most of it, and it wont help me to yank it out. Make the next guy's life easier. If HE decides he doesnt like the existing infrastructure, he can rip and replace. And if I do remove a rack, I carefully disconnect the patch panels from the rack and feed them up and out of the enclosure so they can be fitted back into a new enclosure and reused. I dont act like a douche and cut the wires at the top of the rack.

When I go into a new to us building, it blows my mind when I find they cut cables or removed wall plates. Why? Are you that cheap? Petty?

The worst one in my 25 year career happened earlier this year. We purchased a virtually new building from Progressive Insurance. it had a GORGEOUS server room. Very neat and clean. Professionally installed and bonded racks, dressed cables, firestopped sleeves, etc. Station wires were run a little odd, but I could work around it. I told my bosses we were good to go and not to plan on any cabling costs. I could move them into the new building and have them up and running in an afternoon.

Then I got on site to move them in. I connected the jacks at the head end based on the well marked outlets. But I couldnt get any links. So I started toning out the wires. Not a single one in the offices could be detected in the rack. So I started popping ceiling tiles. That is when the headaches started.

So my working theory is that they shut the building down during covid. During that time the local IT staff was notified that after they shut the building down, their services would not be needed anymore. So apparently during the cleanout they went through and cut most of the cables above the walls, removed the faceplates, shuffled them, and then reinstalled all of the faceplates in random order. And there was no map. So not only were the faceplates marked wrong, but the wires were disconnected and unusable. My guess is they expected Progressive and their replacements to take the hit. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the staff, they decided to sell the building instead of bringing it back up after Covid.

What should have been an afternoon of attaching patch cords turned into 2 days of cutting service loops down and using that extra slack to allow us to move wires to a wall plate close enough to function.

Moral of the story, dont be a d**k.

Your post brings back LOTS of memories. I'm a retired tech support manager. Before I was promoted to manager I did tech support. Some of the s**t you see just boggles the mind. You wonder if they were truly being a d**k to the incoming folks. Or just plain ignorant.

 

[MCgrease08]

How bout asking the new owners ?

It's currently a purely hypothetical scenario and it's fun to debate. No owners to ask yet.

 

[Creedmoor]

It's currently a purely hypothetical scenario and it's fun to debate. No owners to ask yet.

With me, If gallons of old paint were in the home or garage the day of walk through before settlement, it would be on the list of sh!t for the homeowner to remove before settlement.

 

[dieselrealtor]

leave it,

I have seen a number of times when a buyer had huge plans, once the couch & TV were unpacked touching up with existing paint won over repainting.

 

[TrueSeanamus]

Assuming you don’t want to use the paint in the place you are moving to, I’d leave it for them to repair any scratches or stains if it’s a decent quality paint. Worst case scenario they toss it which you would have done anyways. Best case is that it is useful for them and it doesn’t just go to waste.

 

[Leo]

I would leave any current custom colors.

Obsolete colors and the old left over stuff you moved to your place when your uncle died, I would dispose of it.

 

[WebSnyper]

When I moved back in 2019, the buyer asked for the paint codes, etc. Sent them pictures of the tops of the cans and told them I would leave one of each.

Likewise the house we purchased, the previous owner provided paint for most rooms and I found the paint code for the exterior in some of the info they left which was very helpful for some touch up I needed to do. For one room they either didn't or I pitched it by mistake and wish I had it, as it's probably the one room I either won't paint or will get to last.

The people we purchased from were very detail oriented and they left me what I call the "box of knowledge" which was manuals and info on items in the house and it was very helpful. As I replace or update things, I replace the new manuals or info into the box and take out what is no longer pertinent. I did the same for the folks that purchased our house.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I'm clearly in the minority in this thread. I'd throw it away and would hope the owners of a place I was buying would do the same. I wouldn't want to deal with their trash, and I wouldn't want someone else to deal with mine.

 

[Gingerbeardman]

I'd view it as leaving hazardous waste for them to get rid of, and I'd throw it all away responsibly. I have little experience in the matter but if I moved in and found old paint cans I'd be annoyed.

 

[klausm]

leave them