Odors Driving Away Home Buyers? Freshen Up Your Rooms With a Few Simple Changes.

Selling a house can be challenging, especially in today's competitive market, so you have to do everything you can to position yourself to sell. Something as inconsequential as an odor may drive picky buyers away. What's worse is that your home can often have odors you don't even notice, so you may not even realize a problem needs to be addressed. If you plan on selling your home or are already on the market without much attention, try these simple tricks to freshen up your listing. 

Air Fresheners

There are so many types of air fresheners on the market you are bound to find one that suits the needs of every room. The only problem with air fresheners is that most of them cover the odor instead of getting rid of it, and some odors can overpower the air freshener. These may be helpful additions, but they are rarely the only solution to the problem.

Clean the Carpet

Even with regular vacuuming, carpets can absorb all kinds of stuff, including odors. Whether it is pet odors, cooking odors, or everyday wear and tear, the smells you bring into the house may linger in your carpets indefinitely if you don't clean them. Professional cleaning is your best bet to get deep down into the fibers, but even a home carpet cleaner will go a long way to pull unwanted odors out of the carpet. 

Wash Rugs, Pillows, and Drapes

Another place that odors may hide in a room is in the textiles you may not think about. Like carpets, other fabrics can trap odors and hang onto them for long periods. If possible, you should have all the textiles in the room professionally cleaned; if not, you should look up the best methods to clean each one. If cleaning isn't an option or you are under time constraints, at least try to use a fabric refresher on these surfaces to remove and cover odors.  

A Fresh Coat of Paint

Many people don't realize that paint can hold odors like cigarette smoke and kitchen grease. We don't like to think about it, but there can also be things happening inside the wall, like a dead mouse creating an unpleasant smell. The best way to deal with all these issues is to have a professional painter freshen up your room with a fresh coat of paint. In addition, many paints and paint additives now work like some room sprays that actually trap and neutralize odors, so they will help keep your room smelling fresher longer. 

Install an Air Purifier

Sometimes the odors aren't trapped anywhere; they float in the air around your home. If you have tried everything else, it may be time to invest in an air purification system that will hopefully neutralize whatever is causing the smell as it purifies the air in your home. Not only will it make the air in your current home smell better, but it will make it better for your family to breathe, and you can take it with you to your next house. 

It's a Team Effort

To truly deodorize a room, you will likely have to do all the above. It is challenging to target where an odor originates because you can't see it, and it can be tricky to track it down with only your nose. If you can only do one thing on this list, it has to be painting the room with odor-absorbing paint. This, by far, covers the most surface area and does the most work in blocking and eliminating odors. To ensure the job is done quickly and professionally, reach out to Jake's Affordable Painting for information and pricing.