The smell of freshly baked pound cake and I'm 10 years old again in my Grandma's kitchen in Coopers Alabama. She baked them by the dozen to sell at the Montgomery Farmer's Market.
There are times we're working with our bees and I catch a scent that transports be back to my Grandad's home in Cass West Virgiia. Among many of his talents, he was a beekeeper with 40+ hives. There are common smells with our hives of today and his from 40 years ago that provide me a reminder of what home is all about.
Home is about strong memories, sometimes sight, sometimes smell, but the brain cells fire with these associations.
Now when you're trying to sell your home, you're trying to create a sense of home, or at a minimum not block the potential buyer's ability to consider a place home.
The eyes buy, but the nose, well the nose can still kill the deal.
Ever walk into a home and smell mold? That moist, rank smell of a home that has real issues? I've walked into that type of home more than once, and I'm still waiting for the day a buyer states: "Let's do this!".
Ever walk into a home with ammonia smell from cat pee so bad your nose burns and your eyes water? Been there, done that. I don't even think the buyer took one step inside the home. Dead on arrival was that deal's potential.
Then there are the homes with the odorizers plugged into every other outlet in the home. Garden fresh, cinnamon and vanilla infused potpouri #83, and the buyer's first thought is "what are they hiding??". Too much of a good thing can kill potential just as easily of a little of a bad thing.
If you want to leave a pleasant scent in your home before a showing, stick to the basics. Keep your house clean and bake some cookies just like grandma used to make and leave them out for the buyer. Who knows, maybe that buyer will be the one that thinks "HOME!".
Serving Greater Cincinnati home buyers and sellers,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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