Selling your home is never easy, particularly if it’s your first time. For starters, there are the emotions that go along with selling a space that you and your family made memories in. There’s also deciding whether to work with a realtor or try and save money by selling it on your own.
And finally, there’s getting your house in decent enough shape that buyers will make an offer. Buyers are often hard to gauge. Sometimes you can predict what they will love and hate, and other times you can’t.
In an effort to help you get your home in the best shape possible, here are the top 3 most common home buyer turnoffs.
Number 3: Dirty and Cluttered Kitchens
Ask any realtor what sells a home and most will come out with the same word: KITCHENS! The kitchen has traditionally been the heart of any home, and buyers do spend a lot of time in there imagining themselves cooking dinners and holiday cookies.
Now you don’t necessarily have to have the world’s largest kitchen with all new appliances and cabinetry to attract a buyer’s eye. Many buyers can’t afford fancy kitchens anyway and are happy to make their own small renovations over the years.
But no one wants to go to an open house and walk into a kitchen that is cluttered and dirty. That is a huge turnoff!
Make sure before an open house or private showing that your dishes are all washed and put away. Scrub down surfaces (no one wants to touch grease and grime) and get rid of counter clutter (do the air fryer, toaster oven, coffee grinder AND waffle iron all have to be taking up space on your counter?)
But how do you keep your kitchen tidy enough so that your house can be shown in its best light on a moment’s notice? Create some space in a bottom cabinet for all of the items you use on a regular basis. When you get a call about a showing, those things can quickly be stored away.
Number 2: Messy Bathrooms
Bathrooms are other spaces that can help you either sell your home or turn off buyers instantly. First, the entire room should be as spotless as possible. Make sure toilets and bathtubs/showers are clean and scrub off any lingering toothpaste splatter on mirrors and faucets.
Are your countertops cluttered in here as well? Makeup and toiletries could be stored in a big Tupperware bin so you can grab them when you need them but get them out in a hurry.
Number 1: Lingering Odors
Without question the number one buyer turnoff across the board is a bad smelling home. How would you feel if you went to view a home and smelled all kinds of bad things? You would want to walk out immediately!
Some of the biggest odor culprits are cooking smells. Lingering garlic, onions and even bacon (I know, hard to believe!) can be a real turnoff to many people.
Pet odors can be very offensive to many people. The smell of a wet dog on furniture and carpeting is quite unpleasant to just about everyone. But even worse than that is the smell of dirty litterboxes or cat urine on carpeting. If you’ve ever experienced the smell, you know what I am talking about!
And lastly, cigarette smoke. This is probably the number one home sale killer when it comes to odors. You will often hear that the only way to get rid of the smell of cigarettes is to repaint every room in your house. Yes, this will definitely work. But what if you don’t have the budget to COMPLETELY repaint your home’s interior?
Air Purifiers – Your Home’s Answer to a Smelly Prayer
Air purifiers really are a great modern-day invention. Not only can they remove allergens and dangerous volatile organic compounds from your home’s environment, they can also completely eliminate odors from pets, smoke, cooking, garbage and dirty diapers.
Having said this, it’s important to follow some guidelines when shopping for an air purifier to ensure it will help make your home smell brand new:
HEPA VS Activated Carbon Filtration
Most air purifiers on the market today are built with HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filtration. HEPA filters are excellent for removing allergens and pet dander from your home’s air. HEPA filters can even trap miniscule particles that are invisible to the naked eye. But if you rely solely on a HEPA filter to remove most of the foul smells in your home, you’ll be sadly disappointed – and so will the potential home buyers.
To truly get your home smelling fresh you’ll need to buy an air purifier (or two) that also use an activated carbon filter. Carbon is an industry standard when it comes to removing unwanted molecules, which is why water purifiers tend to use charcoal filters. Well charcoal can remove unwanted and smelly particles from your air as well as your water.
So, to really clean your home’s air and get your house smelling fresh enough to sell for asking price, look for an air purifier that comes with:
- A HEPA filter to remove microscopic particles.
- A pre-filter (normally attached to the activated carbon filter section) that traps dust and large particles.
- And finally an activated carbon filter, which is porous and processed in order to have absorption properties, leaving fresh air behind.
Also important to mention is to follow the manufacturers’ guidelines and replace filters as often as they recommend.
And finally, it’s important to select the right size purifier for the job. Depending on where most of the smells are in your home, you’ll need to make sure the unit you purchase is up for the job. Air purifiers are built with specific square footage capacity in mind, so be sure to look for that on the box. This way you won’t end up with an air purifier that was really built to handle 300 sq. ft. when your living room is 1000 sq. ft.
If you have any questions about how to properly size your room before purchasing an air purifier, please feel free to give us a call. We can help you determine which units will work best in which rooms. We can also answer any other questions you may have about brand names and warranties.
If you want to get started shopping for air purifiers right now, see our selection of air purifiers that were built with odor fighting in mind.
We totally get that selling a home can be a hassle. If odors are an issue for you, we’d love to help you get your home in the best shape possible.
