Scents for attracting home buyers

[*bejeweled*]

Hi there,
We're putting our house up for sale this weekend. What are some great scents to have brewing in order to make it attractive to buyers?

Any other hints would be really appreciated too!

Thanks,

Faith

[mommabear]

Freshly baked bread . . . Yum .

Citrus smells are good too!

Good luck!

[stellimamo]

vanilla.. its yummy but not overpowering and almost everyone can "relate" to that scent...

[lightheart]

coffee and nutmeg

[hubris]

I've heard conflicting advice.

One camp says that baking smells - REAL baking smells, like cookies fresh from the oven - make your house smell homey.

The other camp says that your house should be smell-neutral. You can't guarantee that the people looking at your home will agree with your ideas of what smells good. Personally, I fall into this camp. I can't stand any of the air fresheners/oils/candles. Right now I'm 10 weeks pg and the smell of coffee makes me gag (and I know other people who always hate the smell). Some people think lemon smells clean, some people think bleach smells clean, some people would rather not smell either. In addition to personal preferences, sometimes the presence of an obvious scent can make people suspicious - are you trying to cover some other odor? Pet stains? Mildew?


So honestly, I wouldn't do ANY scent. Worked fine for me when I sold my house a few years ago. Whoever buys your home can put their own scent in it later.

[CandyApple]

I agree with hubris - anything too strong will offend.

My choice, tho, would be a faint lemon. Its light and always is associated with cleanliness, which is a major turn-on in a new home. That and no clutter!

Good luck!

[Aura_Kitten]

Something *real* ~~ as in, no candles, potpourri, or anything like that, but if you're in the baking mood, I'd say you should definitely whip out a few batches of cookies or loaves of home-baked bread.

That way you can also offer them to your guests (and yes they're prospective home buyers but they're *also* guests).

[Kerlowyn]

I agree with 'neutral' scents. When DH and I were looking for a house last year, I hated it when the owners were burning scented candles, or had sprayed the room with something. I even did not like the 'cookies from the oven' approach. I wanted to walk into a house and smell nothing. No flowers, no food...I wanted to be able to smell the house.

[polyhymnia]

Originally Posted by Kerlowyn

I agree with 'neutral' scents. When DH and I were looking for a house last year, I hated it when the owners were burning scented candles, or had sprayed the room with something. I even did not like the 'cookies from the oven' approach. I wanted to walk into a house and smell nothing. No flowers, no food...I wanted to be able to smell the house.

I agree. I am VERY sensitive to scents and house sellers always have horrible scented candles, really smelly flowers, etc - I'd spend the whole tour sneezing

Cookies or something.. maybe, but I'd rather just have neutral odors. If there are scents that are too overpowering I wonder what you are trying to hide.

[MomToKandE]

Originally Posted by mommabear

Freshly baked bread . . . Yum .

This is what I was going to say. If you have a bread machine put some bread in it (a mix would be fine since you'll probably be busy getting ready) and leave it running.

[Laggie]

My mom is a realtor and she recommends putting a pot on the stove on low heat with vanilla and water in it for a couple of hours before the showing.

It's pretty mild and people might think you'd actually been baking.

[TinyFrog]

I have to agree with the neutral statements. I would hate to walk in and smell a strong candle or something that I know was meant to cover up a smell. I remember when I was a kid and my mom and I had make speghetti for dinner one night when a realator was showing the house and we had compliments. It wasn't the intention though, just trying to eat dinner.

[HappiLeigh]

Why not just actually bake cookies? Then your house smells "real," you haven't created a fake scent, AND you get to eat cookies!

[sweetc]

For me, just trying to keep it spotlessly clean for showing made baking cookies unrealistic! We just went with clean. I use essential oils in my cleaning products and they are gentle smelling, but nice and not too noticeable.

[kwilki8]

When we were house hunting I really preferred neutral scents. Actually, our top two picks were both houses that had a couple of windows open a bit so it just smelled fresh. I think we only saw a couple of houses that tried the cookies approach, and it did smell homey, but they also had a bunch of family pictures all around, so it seemed very much like someone else's home, not mine.

[boobybunny]

The one house we sold, sold to a couple who came to look at it while I had a chicken in the oven, with lot's of fresh herbs, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and lavender. Not intentional, just dinner. They asked me for the chicken recipe and made an offer on the house. I don't think the roasting chicken was what sold them though. It was the new paint, clean and polished hardwood floors and the number of bathrooms that sold them.

[stelly]

I sell homes and urge people not to try and make the house smell like anything. Just open the windows and let some breeze through, and keep it clean. Hopefully any fragrance it carries will just be from cleaning products or the good old outdoors - not some overbearing candle stink!

[mommyddeville]

We looked for homes 2 years ago, and I liked it when houses smelled like nothing. We were looking in the dead of winter, so having open windows was impossible. I liked walking into a house and having it be warm, though. I liked knowing that we weren't going to have to worry about there not being any insulation.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I also agree with the nutral sent. When we were house shopping, every time we saw a house with a strong sent in it I wondered what they were covering up. Is there mold or pet smell or smoke or whatever? I would just focus on making your house as clean as you can and maybe air it out, open all the windows for a while before a showing.

[Demeter9]

We literally walked out of houses that were scented - I walked into so many "prettily" scented houses I wanted to wretch. The horrible experience of everything from lysol to nostril whapping lavender remains one of the most memorable unpleasant experiences in my life.

If you must scent, please consider that your potential buyers may be asmatic or allergic. Please keep it very mild.

We found that we became highly suspicous of places that were scented. What ARE they hiding? So the entire strategy might back fire on you.