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| Home Selling Smells – Using Your "Scents" of Smell to Help Sell Your Home |
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You've followed all the steps your real estate agent or FSBO company gave you to get your house ready for the market. You painted the exterior of your home. You mowed the lawn. You painted the inside of your home and tidied up a bit as well.
Now your home has great curb appeal, but there are at least five more things you can do to increase the appeal of your home to prospective buyers. They all involve a sense we rarely consider when buying or selling a home: smell.
1. Bad-smelling basement: Nothing smells quite like a musty basement. Make yours smell less musty by opening doors and windows to ventilate it (using fans can help), removing any mildewy carpet padding and, if all else fails, running a |
| dehumidifier in the basement for several days before a buyer visits.
2. Funky-smelling Fido and Fifi: Rid your home of pet odors. Wash your pet's bedding and bathe him or her if possible. Clean and wash out your cat's litter box, refilling it with fresh litter-–and make sure to hide it when home buyers are in your house. Use an enzyme-based cleaner to remove pet odors and stains from the carpet.
3. Re-scent your refrigerator: Throw out any old, rotten food first. Next, remove all the food from your refrigerator and unplug it. Take two tablespoons of baking soda and mix them in a quart of warm water. Use this solution to wipe down the interior of the refrigerator, then rinse it and leave the door open to let |
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| the refrigerator dry and air out. If it still smells bad, try a solution of one cup vinegar to one gallon of water instead of baking soda and water, and repeat the steps above.
4. Garbage in, garbage out: If the garbage disposal smells bad, make sure it's turned off first then check immediately underneath the rubber flaps in your sink. Sometimes, bits of garbage can get trapped under those flaps and stink up the joint. Next, take half a lemon and some baking soda and run them through the disposal. Ahhhh, lemony-fresh
5. Nothing says loving like something from the oven: Here's an old real estate agent trick. Shortly before prospective buyers visit your home, make sure to bake an apple pie or some cookies or |
| brownies. If you're not much of a cook, no problem; just use a frozen pie or the pre-mixed cookie dough they sell in the refrigerated section of many grocery stores. The point is to make your home smell really, really nice when the buyers come. Score some brownie points by offering them some of whatever it is you baked.
Selling your home doesn't have to stink. Just follow the simple pointers listed above and your house will come out smelling like roses.
About The Author
Frank Calderon. Copyright © 2006 curioZities, LLC. All rights reserved.
Find Frank's Fast Five real estate tips at http://www.flarealestatepixelads.com.
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