Okay, okay, enough play on words. Truth is, scents are a really big deal in selling a home! Sellers do all they can to create an inviting home from cleaning every surface to clearing out the clutter. They add a scent to make the buyer feel even more at home. The trick is to find that ideal, universal scent that everyone loves. Unfortunately, this is a difficult balance! To one buyer, recently cut lilac is a beautiful aroma. To another, a strong fragrance that triggers allergies. Air fresheners that pretend to be the smell of a cool mountain breeze may be too much like a perfume and give some buyers a headache. Even the efforts of baking fresh cookies before the showing can backfire! I will never forget arriving at a showing and this note was taped to the front door: “Made cookies … and burnt them – so sorry! Burnt smell not include in sale of home. Thank you for understanding!” Apparently, the sellers were so busy picking up for the showing that they forgot about the cookies in the oven! Believe me, we could smell those cookies outside, inside, and all around us! So, what is a seller to do? First do a good hard clean of the home. Sensitive noses can still smell the cat litter or garbage odors despite any air fresheners used to mask it. Refrain from cooking foods with strong, lingering smells. Keep the air circulating in the home (utilize your all-house fan, furnace fan, air to air exchanger, etc.). If you are on the fence about a scent, have a few friends over to offer their first impressions of the scents when they enter your home. The most popular scents tend to be limes, grapefruits, oranges, and peppermint in their original form as these have a fresh scent and appeal to the eye, giving an overall pleasant experience. It would be too bad to have a great home only to have a buyer be “scent away.”
By Kristin Beise, Realtor, RE/MAX Advantage Plus