Early in my real estate career, I read an article titled "If You Can Smell It, You Can't Sell It." I don't remember the author, the publication, or even many of the details, but the catchy title has always stuck with me.
It has stuck with me because it's catchy, but also because I am confronted by the challenge of talking to sellers about potentially offensive odors in their homes in almost every listing.
Pet odors are the most frequent odor problems, but lingering smoking and cooking odors also present their fair share of challenge.
Now, it's really not that hard for me to talk to people about the smoking odors. People are used to getting beaten up about smoking. Everyone knows smoking is bad for you and offensive to other people. Plus, once they get the odor cleaned up (I won't even go into THAT in this post), they can just go outside to light up.
But to tell someone that Mr. Sloppy and his smell might offend someone! Or that not everyone likes sauerkraut, fish, or whatever! People take these things personally! Add to that the fact that most people can't smell their own house, and, well, I've never found a solution.
How do you introduce the issue of odor with sellers. How do you make them aware that the odor needs to go without having them "shoot the messenger"?
I'd love loads of feedback on this. The problem of smell really stinks!
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