Home Selling Smells - Using Your Scents of Smell to Help Sell
Your Home
You've followed all the steps your real estate agent or FSBO
company gave you to get your house ready for the market. You
painted the exterior of your home. You mowed the lawn. You
painted the inside of your home and tidied up a bit as well.
Now your home has great curb appeal, but there are at least five
more things you can do to increase the appeal of your home to
prospective buyers. They all involve a sense we rarely consider
when buying or selling a home: smell.
1. Bad-smelling basement: Nothing smells quite like a musty
basement. Make yours smell less musty by opening doors and
windows to ventilate it (using fans can help), removing any
mildewy carpet padding and, if all else fails, running a
dehumidifier in the basement for several days before a buyer
visits.
2. Funky-smelling Fido and Fifi: Rid your home of pet odors.
Wash your pet's bedding and bathe him or her if possible. Clean
and wash out your cat's litter box, refilling it with fresh
litter--and make sure to hide it when home buyers are in your
house. Use an enzyme-based cleaner to remove pet odors and
stains from the carpet.
3. Re-scent your refrigerator: Throw out any old, rotten food
first. Next, remove all the food from your refrigerator and
unplug it. Take two tablespoons of baking soda and mix them in a
quart of warm water. Use this solution to wipe down the interior
of the refrigerator, then rinse it and leave the door open to
let the refrigerator dry and air out. If it still smells bad,
try a solution of one cup vinegar to one gallon of water instead
of baking soda and water, and repeat the steps above.
4. Garbage in, garbage out: If the garbage disposal smells bad,
make sure it's turned off first then check immediately
underneath the rubber flaps in your sink. Sometimes, bits of
garbage can get trapped under those flaps and stink up the
joint. Next, take half a lemon and some baking soda and run them
through the disposal. Ahhhh, lemony-fresh
5. Nothing says loving like something from the oven: Here's an
old real estate agent trick. Shortly before prospective buyers
visit your home, make sure to bake an apple pie or some cookies
or brownies. If you're not much of a cook, no problem; just use
a frozen pie or the pre-mixed cookie dough they sell in the
refrigerated section of many grocery stores. The point is to
make your home smell really, really nice when the buyers come.
Score some brownie points by offering them some of whatever it
is you baked.
Selling your home doesn't have to stink. Just follow the simple
pointers listed above and your house will come out smelling like
roses.