Your Home’s Smell May Impact Its Value

Whether you are a smoker and looking to sell your home, or you bought a new home and it smells like smoke, there are things you can do right away to improve it. Cigarette fumes in a home can be a major turnoff to a new home buyer. You don’t want to miss out on a prospective buyer because your home smells. 

Cigarette smoke smell can seriously lower the value of your home. The smell is not just a matter of aesthetics, it can exposure a new homeowner, their children, and their pets to unhealthy chemicals, even months after a cigarette has been smoked in the home. 

Cigarette smoke pollutes air quality and can cause asthma, headaches, nausea, fatigue, and an increased risk for lung cancer, even if you personally have never smoked a day in your life. 

A strong smell of smoke can quickly clue in potential buyers that this was a home with smokers and could make your home harder to sell.

It is possible to get the smoke smell out of a house. While it might seem like a lot of work, the payoff can be big when selling your home (or when living in a new home that smells like smoke).

Here’s what you can do:

1.    Clear the air. Open the windows and let fresh air in. Also consider purchasing an air filter, preferably a HEPA model with a charcoal odor filter. This helps to eliminate smoke particles and dust. Also consider a dehumidifier which can dry out the air, helping odors to disappear.

2.    Clean the carpets. Using baking soda or an odor eliminator, sprinkle it on the carpet and vacuum thoroughly. You may need to do this several times. If the odor persists, you may need to replace carpets. For wood and tile floor, try mopping.

3.    Deal with the curtains, blinds and window treatments. These need to be cleaned as well. The smoke smell can linger on these and permeate the entire house.

4.    Clean the air ducts. Cigarette smoke may have been circulating throughout the home for many years. Properly clean the air ducts in the home to help eliminate the odors. Also check your HVAC evaporator coil following manufacturer instructions. If the coil has absorbed the smell of smoke, every time the A/C turns on it could be blasting the smell of smoke throughout the home. Clean it thoroughly or hire a professional to do this.

5.    Remove furniture that smells of smoke. Fabric absorbs the odor of cigarettes quickly. Deep clean furniture to remove the odors or consider replacing the furniture.

Finally, try not to overdo the air freshener. If you’re showing your home and it reeks of air freshener or scented candles, chances are a potential buyer will realize you’re trying to cover up a bad smell. And, unfortunately, cigarette smoke smell can still be detected, even when using strong air freshener.