selling a home privately

• Pet odors
• Stale cooking/food smells
• Cigarette smoke

Smell makes an enormous impact on people when they enter a home. Furthermore, while smokers and pet owners may not even notice the smells in their home – having become quite accustomed to them – they may be an overwhelming turn-off for potential buyers.

In this case, have a non-smoking, non-pet owning friend come over to perform a sniff test.

While it used to be recommended that you bake bread or steam cinnamon potpourri before a potential buyer is to come through, it’s no longer recommended. The same goes for spray air fresheners.

If you insist upon adding a scent to your home, make it a very – repeat, very – lightly scented candle, or scented oil. However, it’s better not to scent the home at all.

The best way to get rid of scent problems in a home isn’t to cover them up, but instead, it’s to remove them at the source. Recommended techniques for accomplishing this include:

• Scrubbing the house
• Having the air vents cleaned
• Replacing old, smelly carpeting
• Smoking outdoors
  

This is especially important in bathrooms. Here, you should either paint a neutral color, or the lightest color that will match the existing tile.

This is the same for kids’ rooms. If they need a fresher look, then go with colors that are as neutral as possible.

That way, while buyers look at the house, they’ll be looking at the home for itself, not for your own decorating abilities. Furthermore, this allows them more of a shot at imagining the way their things will go into the space.