Home scenting

The most beautiful home will turn off prospective buyers if it smells unpleasant. Real estate agents and home stagers endeavor to create a welcoming impression with your home's assets and décor, and everything you've put into improving your home would count for nothing if buyers were to walk into a cloud of cigarette smoke, pet scents or mildew smells; they might not even venture past the entryway.

Though cigarette smoke and pet smells are the most notorious offenders, some additional scents also have been reported as turnoffs.

"Strong disinfectants, insecticides and french fries have all been known to dampen the enthusiasm of buyers who might otherwise respond positively to a house that would meet their needs," said realtor Stephanie Mallios. An addition to that list is the musty smell of an older home.

What makes a buyer connect to a home is extremely subjective, and scents can trigger memories and feelings in an individual that you can't possibly predict. The goal is to create a pleasant, subtle scent that inspires the experience of a comfortable, clean and cozy living environment.

Here are some tried-and-true methods for creating a lovely scent in the home you're selling:

–Before a showing or an open house, pop some Pillsbury rolls or bread into the oven. The scent of freshly baked bread is one of the most advised aromas. Before baking, though, make sure your oven does not have any spilled-over sauce – for example, from last night's lasagna – in it, as that could fill your home with smoke and a burnt smell. Be sure your oven is clean inside and out.

–Experiment ahead of time with scented candles. Some brands of candles create a very strong scent, which can create a "too much of a good thing" vanilla, citrus, lavender or other scent that becomes an overpowering, almost sickening, smell. Test your space to find out how many candles are needed in a single scent to create a pleasant, subtle aroma.

–Scent smaller spaces, such as bathrooms, with a single reed diffuser in a natural scent, avoiding very strong smells in a small space. Some berry or tropical scents can be too strong for a tiny room.

–"If someone in the home is a smoker, place a moratorium on smoking indoors during the time you have your house on the market," Mallios advised.

–Place reed diffusers on a windowsill so that the sun warms the jar and helps disseminate the scent.

–Do not use scented floor cleaners, such as lavender- or berry-scented cleaning solutions, even if you like the aroma. Some cleaning solutions with scent added can create extremely strong or conflicting smells within your home.

Remove Musty Smell

Musty smell is very common around the house. You can encounter it in the basement, crawl space, the washing machine,the carpet, the closet, the bedroom,  in the car and from the book shelves. This article will give you an idea of the causes of this smell and which steps you need to take to eliminate this smell.

There are lots of ways to mask the smell, however it can be dangerous to your and your families health if you try to cover up the smell and forget about it. It is best to check the source first and then get rid of this musty smell.

Possible causes are:

Improper air circulation is often the reason of this smell in the basement. To fix this you should find air leaks first. In the article mentioned above, you can see how this is done. After that, open all doors and let a fan blow in fresh air for an hour or two.

Mold can grow an a variety of items like paper, food and other places with high humidity.The bathroom can be a breading place for dangerous kinds of mold too. it is important to check from which room the smell originates. Get rid of the musty smell from that area by throwing all doors open and switch on a fan. If the smell remains, there are other places too which can cause this. It is important to rinse and repeat this process as often as necessary.

For the bathroom and for the basement it is important to remove any wet spots and water leaks. Else you can remove new strains of mold the next month and I think that is not something you want to do very often.

If you find any mold you can remove it from walls by sanding. Scrubbing is not enough, some of the mold will remain and it will grow back. If the molds gets absorbed into food or paper or even if the musty  smell comes from a carpet, you will have to throw it out.

The Real Estate Investor's Answer Book, Money Making Solutions to All Your Real Estate Questions

2,001 amazing cleaning secrets

Featherweight 221, The Perfect Portable and Its Stitches Across History

Jeff May's Healthy Home Tips, A Workbook for Detecting, Diagnosing, and Eliminating Pesky Pests, Stinky Stenches, Musty Mold, and Other Aggravating Home Problems

The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living, Advice and Information on Just About Everything You Need to Know to Live on Planet Earth