The following is an excerpt from my book in progress, "Behind the For Sale Sign"


The homeowner, Doris, didn’t work, but stayed at home,

watching TV and smoking cigarettes.  I had spoken to her

numerous times about the overriding odor of smoke in her home.  I told her that many

Buyers are turned off by the smell of cigarette smoke and would not consider purchasing

a home with that odor.  Not only might the smell sicken them, but they

would think that they would need to replace carpets and wash down walls to clear the

odor out of the house when they took ownership.

I asked Doris to please smoke outdoors even though it was December. And, if she

was unable to do that,  to please open the windows before a showing. She declined my

advise  completely.  She did however agree to spray the house

with  Fabreeze prior to each showing and Open House.

I ran a Sunday Open House even though Doris didn’t feel well and insisted on staying

home that day.  Before the Open House began Doris  sprayed the home with Fabreeze

after she took her last drag.  The ashtray was full of butts and I

asked her to please hide it away so that the prospective buyers didn’t have to stare the

culprit in the face.  She went to her dryer, opened the hood and laid the ashtray on the

cylinder in the middle of the dryer and then closed the hood over it. Presto! The ashtray

had disappeared!

The home finally received an  accepted offer.  I attended the Home

Inspection with the buyer, the buyer’s broker and the Home Inspector. About halfway

 into the inspection I was standing in the living room chatting with the other Realtor

when I heard “clunk-clunk-clunk”. I casually asked what the noise was and the other

Realtor told me that the Inspector had turned on the dryer to observe where it vented out

of the house.

The Dryer! I ran to the dryer and told the Inspector to turn it off immediately. “The

ashtray is in the dryer!” Sure enough when we lifted the hood of the dryer there was the

ashtray, the butts and the ashes flung around the inside of the dryer. Oh no! The inspector

couldn’t believe what he had done! He quickly found a vacuum and cleaned out the

dryer.   He did a great job; the ashtray was still in one piece and the ashes and butts were

sucked up. 

.

The inspector looked at all of  us and said, “Her house smells so much like smoke that

she won’t even notice the odor on her clean clothes!”

And he was right!  Doris never asked how her freshly laundered pants and tops retained

the smell of stale tobacco.




Real Estate Hint: Two important gardening chores that should be seen to when your house is on the market in warm weather - prune bushes and weed, weed, weed!  Too often folks allow the bushes that abut the house to grow as large as nature allows.  Bushes that grow beyond window ledges should be cut back.  Many people seem to feel that it is a crime against nature to prune their bushes, but when a house is on the market not only does a well shaped bush look better from the exterior, but it also allows sunlight to come through the windows and there is nothing better to show off a home than natural light.  And, I can't emphasize too much the need to weed - it's free and it says "I care about my house!"  Pay particular attention to weeding front walkways and patios.  Weeds often give a bad first impression - and it's such an easy fix!