Stepping into a home and getting hit with a waft of strawberry or vanilla just doesn't help. The art of scent is personal and tricky. Buyers want homes that smell "clean"....not fruity. So what does "clean" smell like? Not like fried fish dinner or cat litter. In a $750,000 house one time, I opened a small closet and was overcome from the smell of stinky shoes--not sneakers...well-worn women's shoes. The biggest offenders needed to be in plastic boxes--or thrown out. A hanging cedar chip or evergreen scent bag would have helped a lot. My trick for open houses is to use a small amount of high quality furniture polish with real lemon oil wiped on the baseboards. That scent definitely suggests "clean." They sell candles that smell like apple pie spices. I hate those. It seems like the oldest trick in the book but popping refrigerator dough cookies in the oven before an open house and then serving the cookies never fails. Potential buyers gobble up the cookies and don't feel you are masking some worse odor with some chemical "berry" flavor. As for Glade and Freshen and Fabreeze and plug-ins--don't get me started!
I was just thinking about this last night as I lit my "Harvest" candle after dinner. I enjoy the smell but my husband hates it! Clean to me has no smell at all or is a nice lemon smell. (It's all of those Pine commericals!)
Brownie in a can bought by the case is a super way to set the stage for something good. But not to over mask a home that smells like you are inside an ash tray or camped out in a cat box.
I bought a "linen fresh" candle and it just made the house smell like a laundromat!
It is easy to get seduced by candle names, Karin. I bought one called Santorini, hoping to be transported to the Greek Isles. Not even close!
As for Brownie in a Can, Andrew, aren't the buyers left hungry for non-existent brownies? Nothing could be easier than a boxed brownie mix. I vote for real brownies.
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