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LOL! I think that is staging rule #1, or at least used to be a few decades ago.
Never seen it myself.
I baked up chocolate chip cookies for every showing of our house a couple years ago. I made up a double batch of dough and froze it in scoops. When the realtor called, I put some on a cookie sheet to thaw while I did a quick spruce up of the house. 15 minutes ahead of time, I put the cookies in the oven and put on a pot of coffee. When you walked in the house, it smelled like coffee and cookies.
House sold before we'd gone through all the dough.
A friend would start a fire and put on a chicken to boil. She thought chicken soup made a house feel like home. Said she went through a cord of wood and half a dozen chickens before the house sold.
I think smells make a huge difference. I think they connect to deep memories. I think people feel uncomfortable in a house that smells "funny."
There's a Blue Magic Pure Citrus air freshener that works great. Also, Bad Odor Sponge Neutralizer that works pretty good to get rid of odors.
Dehumidifier for musty basements.
I use the Kirkland brand cleaning wipes to do last minute cleaning of sinks and counters. Leaves a faint, citrus, clean smell.
We cleaned and majorly decluttered. I lived with 3 pairs of shoes, less than half my wardrobe, and not much of my kitchen stuff.
Touched up all of the interior walls (love my children, but they destroy walls) and repainted one room a more show-friendly color.
Repainted front and back doors.
Polished front door handles.
New shower curtain in the kids' bathroom.
New curtains in rooms that got a lot of sun. Cheap white sheers from Wal-Mart made a dining room that had just been repainted pale green pop. I washed the curtains in the other rooms - it is amazing how dirty they get.
I baked up chocolate chip cookies for every showing of our house a couple years ago. I made up a double batch of dough and froze it in scoops. When the realtor called, I put some on a cookie sheet to thaw while I did a quick spruce up of the house. 15 minutes ahead of time, I put the cookies in the oven and put on a pot of coffee. When you walked in the house, it smelled like coffee and cookies.
Some clever staging company should have "chocolate chip cookies and coffee" room spray manufactured and sell it online!
Some clever staging company should have "chocolate chip cookies and coffee" room spray manufactured and sell it online!
I know, I loved coming home to that smell.
Realtors told us that even people who said right off the bat it wouldn't work for them (Only one bathroom upstairs. No place for their in-laws to live. ) lingered in our home talking about what they could do to make it work. (We could remodel that third bedroom into a bathroom. We could add on.)
I also thought about baking gingersnaps, but the house was under contract before we ran out of chocolate chip cookie dough.
Only downside, was that people walked around dropping crumbs everywhere.
Strangely, hardly anyone ever had a cup of coffee.
Now that I think of all the folks on those househunter shows going on and on and on about "space for entertaining" maybe Lovehound is on to something here.
Perhaps I'll skip the coffee and bars routine next time and just put out a couple martinis.
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