Believe it or not, the human nose can detect and clarify about 10,000 smells. That's right....10,000! We know that the power of smell is one of the strongest senses we, as humans, posess. And recent studies have shown that scent is the strongest of our 5 senses that is tied directly to memory.
In my parent's house, for example, my mother always made fresh peach pies in the late summer. To this day, I can smell a peach pie from a mile away and instantly Im transported to my mom's kitchen as a 7yr old boy in my swimsuit pacing around the table hoping to get a shot at sticking my finger into the peach filling while my mom wasn't looking. (I got caught every time).
Retailers have been using smells to get people to buy their goods with thousands of scents for literally thousands of years. Scents, as a whole, have a power of their own and, depending on the scent, can even have a profound effect on the very psychology of a person.
It is the same when showing a home! Strong smells like cat oders (pet orders in general, really. I just pick on cats because it is the most obvious example of a gross smell that everyone can relate to) or even cooking smells (burnt oil, grease, hard fish smells) can send buyers away faster than any screwed up floor plan or poor staging effort. In fact, you can stage a home perfectly, and have the perfect floor plan, but if the house smells like 50 cats used it for a latrine, you may as well burn it down where it sits because it will probably never sell.
If you are showing a contemporary condo or loft in a hip, upscale urban setting where young singles and urbanistas are buying, you would want your clients to be highly attentive and excited. Putting out scents of rosemary, peppermint or grapefruit will help them make decisions more quickly as these scents improve alertness and stimulation.
If you are showing an older home in the suburbs with numerous rooms and a ‘creative' floor plan, you may want them to feel more calm and relaxed. Lavender is the perfect scent for this. Mixed with citrus smells, you will have a calm, yet mentally alert client that can make calm, rational decisions.
Aside from those, here is a list of scents and their reactions to human behavior:
Chamomile - Calming and soothing; eases anger and anxiety.
Clary Sage - Relaxing; euphoric; eases anxiety, tension, and stress.
Eucalyptus - Fresh, cooling, and invigorating; promotes alertness.
Jasmine - Alleviates anxiety and depression.
Lavender - Calming.
Lemon - Refreshing and energizing; eases tension, heightens mental clarity.
Mandarin - Relaxing and calming; relieves insomnia.
Orange blossom - Relieves stress, anxiety and insomnia.
Peppermint - Refreshing and stimulating; increases alertness.
Rosemary - Promotes mental clarity and alertness.
Sandalwood - A warm, sensual aroma that creates seductive and euphoric moods.
This is just a small sample, obviously. But, this sample includes the top scents used by retailers to stimulate buyers. Since you are also assisting buyers, using similar techniques will help move properties faster and put your buyers in the ‘right frame of mind'.
Clint, you are so right about the smells we encounter in someones home and the emotion that evokes in a potential buyer. Certainly, cigarette smell is one of the worse and most often requires more drastic treatment to remove it from the home. I'll try some of your suggestions on more subtle home smells.
Barbara -- Cigarette and cigar smoke, pipe smoke, etc...even woodsmoke can cause people to be turned off. And, in some circumstances, the only way to get rid of the smell is removing the upholstered items, curtains, even the carpet.
Interesting post. isn't it amazing how many different influences we deal with in the real estate business. I can now add odor connoisseur to the list!
Verlyn
Verlyn -- Yes...Yes you can. ;-)
Hi Clint. Thanks for writing.
Smell is so important!
Bad smelling homes are so hard to sell. Curry or pet urine scents cause a house to sell thousands below where it should...
Thanks again,
Ken
Ken -- When I was buying this summer, we went to one house.....the owner met us at the door and said, and I quote....
"We were able to get everything in the home really cleaned up and neat for your showing today...Well, everything except the cat room."
Yeah.....I left.
Clint - smells do evoke something within us. We all enjoy a good smell and the emotions that are tied to it ... weather it be a fresh baked pie ... or the scent of a candle. It's true anywhere ... grocery stores, restaurants, etc. If it smells bad ... I want out! If it smells good ... I tend to stick around longer. Great post with a wealth of information. Thanks!
Kathleen -- Thank you so much for the kind words...and, with regards to your comments...I agree! :-)
I absolutely agree that smell matters. It is the first thing to greet your client and usually the last thing they remember.
Lisa -- And depending on the smell, they can actually recall what house they saw based on the smell of the home...
"You know, honey....the one that smelled like bass bait....with the spoiled milk smell in the laundry room..."
Clint ~ I agree 100% the owners of the home often times can not smell what we can and I think its my duty to tell them. At Open houses if you put some vanilla extract on a piece of tinfoil and put the open on low say 200 it will make the home smell so good. I do suggest plug ins or something constant while its for sale.
June -- Completely agree!! My agent used to tell her sellers to buy Vanilla Fabreeze and soak the house in it.....whole house would smell like vanilla cake and frosting...YUM!
Clint - Great post on this topic. I often explain to home sellers that our olfactory sense (smell) is most closely linked to our memory. No one wants to be known as the "dog pee" house.
Jason -- Thanks, man. Much appreciated....LOL @ dog pee house. Ive been there....
My broker was selling her home, and when I showed it she had put out a dish of sugar cookies (not homemade, I later found out) and the house smelled wonderfully like Christmas because of the strategically placed Sugar Cookie candles she had left burning.
Although, I am wondering if vaporizing a small amount of prozac into the air might have a similar effect, yet work even better.
Diane -- Sugar cookies are a great smell...smells like being a kid...Love em.
LMAO @ Prozac burst....that would work!
Please know that a strong artificial odor is just as much of a turn-off as actual stink-odors.
Many buyer's know when a smell is masking an pet/smoke/stink odor and if there is not an "offensive" odor to begin with, an overwhelming artificial scent becomes offensive in and of itself.
(IMHO)
Phoebe -- Oh, I agree...Im not saying to bury the house in scented pine trees or anything. :-)
This is a great post, Clint. Last weekend I agreed to host an open house for a fellow broker, and the house smelled "funky" for lack of a better word. I tried the Febreze treatment, but it just covered it up. Turns out they had a fish dinner the night before. Blech.
Marcy -- Thank you so much!! Ahhh...fish. One of the worst smells out there. Why any seller would do that the day before they have an open house....lol
This is a great post, Clint.
Supposedly, in our brain the smell center is close to the memory center, no wonder we subconsciously associate smells with different memories from our life.
I prefer lavender scent, it has calming effect, especially in the private areas of the home (bedrooms, baths). Previous night's dinner will be definitely recognizable, because it concentrates in all porous materials, like the upholstery, drapery and such. There should be a guideline describing what the seller can and cannot have for dinner the night before the showing ;D
Some properties can use the help thanks for the list.
Dog pee have ruined the best of homes and the homeowners aren't even aware until I point it out
Bozena -- Thank you so much! I agree about the planned menu for sellers. :-) By the way....add some citrus to your lavender. That way, they are calm...and mentally alert. :-)
Terry -- I think most of them can. ;-)
Fernando -- Yup...been there, my friend.
My mother still loves to tell the 40-year-old tale of "the house that wouldn't sell," which she undertook, because she could always find a buyer.
The problem with the house was, of course, the smell. Mother could not track down the source, so called the Sellers (wintering in Floriday) who laughed uproariously, and explained that they were fermenting sauerkraut in tubs in the basement!
However much you like sauerkraut - and I do! - the smell of several dozen pounds of the stuff fermenting can overwhelm anyone.
So, Mother arranged to have the sauerkraut moved into storage, thoroughly aired out the house, and sold it very quickly.
Back in those days, REALTORS® didn't know about the positive effects that aromas can have, so making coffee or spreading around potpourri was uncommon.
Robin -- O M G!!! That had to be enough to knock a buzzard off a gut wagon.....UGH!