The Sniff Test
What do you like to smell when you walk into a house that you’re considering buying and making your home?Do you notice the smell?
Do you remember the house by the smell?
What smell would make you take that home off your list of possibilities?
We all weigh the perception of different senses differently. Smell is just one that is more important to some. There are those of us may not be concerned about street noise, while others absolutely must have bright sunlight.
Hopefully, when you visit a property for sale any odor there belongs to the current residents not the house or the neighborhood.
Suggestions abound regarding what scent sells a house. Sellers watch the “sell it” shows on TV, read articles and get advice from friends. They light candles scented with everything from pumpkin to ocean breezes. They bake bread and cookies. They plug in air fresheners. Sellers take note: buyers walk in and wonder what the seller is trying to cover up.
My favorite scent in a house is none at all! No mustiness, no pet odors (including pet food), no potpourri, no strong cleansers or disinfectants and no hint of last-night’s-dinner. It can be done. A house cleaned and prepped for the market should be in this condition anyway.
What scent do you think sells a house?
Labels: Annie Becker, Newport, real estate in Newport, scent, sell your house, smell
POSTED BY
at
4:53 PM
10 Comments:
hmmm,i like the fresh flowers, in season or evergreens, but only in the room that has the arrangement.
I agree with Annie, the best smell for selling a house is NO smell! I have walked away from two houses I was considering because of smells: mildew in one case and the other an odd cooking smell. Though I love the scent of fresh flowers, some people do not.
Smells are more critical than most sellers realize. I have a very sensitive nose and I am immediately put off by smells. The smells to cover up are just as bad as they are often too overpowering. Most sellers don't recognize the odors as they live in the house and have become immune to them. I find just opening windows well in advance of a showing goes a long way to helping the cause although even that can't take care of heavy pet and or midew smells that are there for the duration.
Brownies?
I love when all you smell is the salt air and wild rose hips wafting in the with the bay and ocean breezes. Honneysuckle and viburnum along with any fragrant blooms will do the trick as well.
I like smells and the associations attached..freshly mown hay in the Midwest,rain in Brazil,the red velvet cakes of my childhood.
My favorite memory of my own 180 year old Newport home is the closet in the Mater bedroom. I arrived to an empty rambling house in mid June years ago and the act of hanging perhaps eight items of clothing in the closet with the sunlight streaming through the windows etched the smell of
this moment forever in my mind.
We have filled the same house with 3 children and I still excape to said closet to remind myself of a time when I hoped for the three loud goofy kids I actually have. Finally.
I would hope that our time in our home would add its own sniff footprint and that it would be a happy one!
One of my favorite smells is the white flowers that come out this time of year on a Privet hedge. These hedges are everywhere and the smell is very similar to honeysuckle. The more untame the hedge the better the smell as it flowers more. Next time you see one slow down and take a "sniff", you will not be dissapointed.
In France, they celebrate a holdiay around this wonderful flowering of the privet hedge. I can't remember the name of the holiday. Maybe someone else knows?
There's nothing like the smell of mothballs to remind me of home.
The unmistakable aroma given off by old unpainted wainscoting or wood floors. It hints of lemon oil and wax but is not over bearing. It reminds one that the house has a history and it's hidden in the walls.
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