Another day among the leftovers

any animal smell. I'm sorry. I like dogs and cats but I will never have one in my home because of the way their odor just consumes every pore of the house.

"Cat smell" (some combination of fur, urine, and litter box aroma) is bar none the worst, and EVERY house with a cat in it has "cat smell."

I know dogs can be smelly and slothful dog owners can have noxious homes, but even the tidiest of cat owners still have "cat smell" in their house.

The presence of "cat smell" automatically drops my offer price by at least 5%.

A dirty fireplace is a big, big, smell problem. We just moved into a home that is 15 years old. The fireplace was never cleaned yet used often. The whole house smells like creosote. After two brush cleanings it is sitll awful - we have foam board in front of it to keep the smell out. Even with a cap and damper the smell still enters the home. Two months after moving in, we dare not put any fabrics in the family room since they will just soak up the smell. We will have to scrape it down with a drill and rebuild the firebox because there is so much creosote in this fireplace. Its nearly a 1/4" thick. The carpets smelled like smoke and all had to go.

However, if not for the smell (and other turn-offs that need fixing), no way we would have scored this home for the price we paid. If you are a smart buyer, you have to be able to see past these things and be honest about what the fix will cost.

Sellers - dont play it cheap. If the person we bought our home from spent 3 thousand on a good fireplace clean and rebuild, Im sure they would have received much more buyer interest.

Almost every bedroom in Massachusetts smells of socks, far as I can tell.

But I'd urge people to pay attention to smells that stay in the house, not those that leave with the sellers.

I laugh at people who turn on their heels because a house smells like smoke. Almost all old houses in the state once smelled of cigarettes in years gone by. New fabrics, a can of paint and refinished floors can fix that problem. But some folks prefer self-flattering drama to getting a good deal, which is fine by me.

On the other hand, I could name about a dozen houses in Cambridge and Somerville with really serious moldy basements. Parts of both cities suffer from high water tables, and Somerville even has an underground river. If you can't get rid of the water, you're not getting rid of the moldy smell. And if the smell is bad enough, it's going to linger no matter how dry you manage to get the basement. Not surprisingly, some of these homes have turned over multiple times in the past few years.

The worst smell by far is DESPERATION.

Desperate Realtors in their leased BMW's need to make their $500 payment but have not had a sale in 3 months because all of their listings are overpriced and the buyers can no longer get approved by loans.
So the realtors start saying how intimate the tiny rooms are and talk up the proximity to the highway (In the backyard).

Oh for the good old days of 2003 when they were lining up and Realtors would no thave to actually work to make a sale...

LL - I agree. We have pets in our family, but always take all precautions to control smells. I dont think you have to avoid having a dog because of the smell. But, you do need to know how to keep the home clean if you do have pets.

Tip for owners - Wall-wall carpeting not a good idea with pets. HW floors or tile (or linoleum), with area rugs on top. Even the best pets have accidents now and then.

Tip for Buyers - Carpets can be easily changed. Dont be skeeved out by nasty, dirty wall-wall carpets. Figure 300-800 a room (depending on size and carpet quality) to have it replaced, including labor. Living on somebody else's carpet is sort of like using a bath towell they have been using for 10 years. Its nasty no matter how much its cleaned. Many professional appartments replace the carpets after every tennant.

Basements - I know water is often a very real problem, but there are many basements that are actually quite dry and all they need is a dehumifier. In our new home which is 15 years old, opening a door for a few days and then running a dehumidifier for a few weeks took a musty suffocating basement and made it very fresh and plesant. Your job as a buyer is to know the difference between "just needs some fresh air" and "where is the Swamp thing down here?".

I don't know, I find the original post a bit mean spirited. Maybe a home is for sale in August because, well, the owners want to sell it for whatever reason. If a seller has pets, a seller has pets. You are buying the home not the pets! Kids can also cause a home to be less than pristine...what's next, making fun of people who try to sell their home with children living in it?

Having tried to sell my home (though not in August!) with both children and pets in it, I came to the realization that no amount of cleaning, ventilating, tidying up (and I did a ton of all of these things) will sell a home if it is not priced right. I have a great deal of respect for the profession of real estate agent, I could not do the job myself to be sure, but pricing accurately is what counts. Rather than go through the charade of "staging" and related interior design stuff, it is the price of the property that will sell it (and if there are real problems like a wet basement or mold, the price will have to reflect these real problems as opposed to less than perfect decor or a whiff of dog).

I feel strongly that pricing right the first time is so much better than wasting a lot of time (sellers and potential buyers alike) with inevitable price reductions and equally inevitable friction when the home finds a buyer. By the time a home has come down in price and finds a buyer, almost everyone involved is fed up. The seller feels ripped off, the buyers feel like they should have waited for another price reduction and may push for more from a now-inflexible seller. The real estate agents are looking at a lot of sunk costs in marketing the home and just want the transaction over with to recoup a lot of costs.

I have a feeling that pricing realistically would do everyone a favor and make home sales a lot less stressful for everyone involved.

I don't think too many people actually buy a home based on someone else's decor etc. Of course you have to clean your house and ensure it is not a mess, pets or no pets, kids or no kids. But don't most people do this anyway? So, you do it more when you are trying to sell your home (a lot more). Seems logical. But altering your home to make it seem like...you are not living there, is odd. It is a home, and someone usually is living in it unless it is brand new.

Bottom line, it is the price of the home in relation to its value in the marketplace. Great home, crummy neighborhood, or fabulous community, poor quality property, the pricing reflects this. This was not the case for a few years because it was much easier to get financing. This is no longer the case for many people. So, setting the price of a given property has to take the new realities into account. Let me assure you, next time I sell a property I will do my own pricing due diligence with as realistic an eye as possible.