I showed a home in Westfield, MA this week that made me nervous.

It wasn’t because the condition or location of the house….it was the SMELL of the house.

Nope, not pet smell or musty smell – stinky candle smell was the culprit.

Let me tell you homeowners something….your house stinks and it isn’t helping me to sell it!

Cue the hue and cry “But we want the home to be inviting!” or “The smell of fresh baked cookies is what you are supposed to do, isn’t it?” or “But we have pets!”.

I know, I know, I have heard it all before.  Now you pull up a seat and listen to this 25 year real estate professional.  Your house stinks.

You want to make your home inviting?  Get the furniture staged, paint the walls the right colors, make it clean and bright and fresh.

Fresh looking AND fresh smelling.

Those cookies you baked?  The buyer wonders why you needed them.  What are you covering up?  The candles you light?  The buyer may be allergic or get headaches from the chemical scents and I am petrified that a listing is going to burn down to the ground from an unattended candle so I go around and blow them all out ANYWAYS.  The pets?  Yes, they smell bad….fix the origin of the smell.  And please for the love of all things DON’T plug in one of those stink making oil things.

Now, you ask….if I shouldn’t use candles, bake cookies or plug in stink makers, HOW do I make the house smell fresh?

The first answer is CLEAN IT.  I don’t mean a gentle wipe down, I mean a on-your-hands-and-knees and behind-every-nook-and-cranny cleaning with nice smelling products.   Natural scents are best, even though those products might be a bit more expensive.  Think lavender, citrus and herbal scents.  These natural smells are appealing to almost everyone and make your home seem fresh and clean.  Scrub the floors, clean the drains, wash the carpets, dry out the basement deal with the litter box and pet beds, you can’t cover these smells up, you need to make them go away.

Then it is time to investigate some natural deodorizing methods.  I have my own chosen techniques that rely heavily on baking soda, activated charcoal, vinegar and essential oils, but I took a little trip to Pinterest and found gads of fantastic ideas on how to make your house smell GOOD. 

I haven’t tried a lot of these ideas, but they look fantastic and I will be testing them out.  If you try some of them, let me know how they worked for you in a comment below, too!

Onward to a stink free, sweet smelling SOLD!

Lesley Lambert, Western MA REALTOR with Park Square Realty 413-575-3611