Tuesday, 5th of January 2010 at 09:05:31 AMThis is such a hard topic to approach with sellers. Often they don’t notice the pet, smoke or musty smell in their home just because they have lived with it for so long. As a sales agent, it’s also a difficult topic to bring up because it is one that offends so quickly. However, the reality is, a smell can cost you a lot. Easily in the thousands and possibly in the tens of thousands.
And in realty, to solve this problem won’t even come close to that cost. Professional carpet cleaning, some new linens, on the outside new carpeting. A small price to pay to regain thousands of dollars in the sale price. The Return on Investment (ROI) is high and should not be ignored.
In fact, many investors love smells, as soon as they smell something walking in the door, they see dollars coming off the offer and they know that the remedy will be less than the discount they will get.
Once you get ride of the bad smells, you want to work on getting good smells. A smell that will trigger a fond memory in the mind of the potential buyer. Sorry, that small is not going to be Febreze. The most agreed upon positive smell is baking oatmeal cookies in the oven, which is why so many agents have cookies when hosting an open house.
Chances are you won’t be able to cook up a batch before a potential buyer arrives for a private showing, so another option is to simmer a pot of water with a cinnamon stick. The smell will fill the house and won’t smell like a chemical or industrial smell.
Some other Good Memory Smells:
- Fresh Flowers
- Baking Bread
- Baking Cookies
- Baking Pies (Apple)
- Baking Turkey
- Freshly brewed coffee
- Freshly popped corn
- Wood burning fireplace
Additional Reading:
Blog Post: Smell to Sell
Blog Post: How to Make your House Smell Good
Book:The Real Estate Investor’s Answer Book: Money Making Solutions to All Your Real Estate Questions
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