Touring houses in Evanston gives me many opportunities to enjoy seeing beautiful things. And over the past 6 months here and at housing4good.com, I’ve enjoyed sharing photos of eye-catching items I’ve seen while touring homes available for sale. But sadly, the “internet-house-tour” experience is limited to only one of the five senses: the sense of sight. (Okay, maybe sometimes the internet involves sounds too, but not on this humble real estate blog.) If you’re only touring homes via the internet, you may miss one of the most important aspects of a home: the smell. Yes, houses often come with their own unique odors. Some are pleasant. Others are not. Today, as I write this while hosting an open house, my olfactory nerve endings are enjoying the smell of a dozen roses and a tray of freshly baked Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies. But not all of my nasal experiences in Evanston Real Estate have been this pleasant. Here are the “Top Ten Bad Smells” that my nose has endured this year so far. 10. The back porch that smelled like a mushroom factory (which is what was probably growing underneath the squishy decking) 9. The basement that simply epitomized mustiness (it even had a moldy, wet towel wadded up at the bottom of the door leading to the outside…eeewww.) 8. The master bath that smelled like the guy who wears too much cologne. 7. The kitchen that smelled like The Spice House got in a fight with the McCormick shelf at the grocery store. 6. The house with the exact same “old people smell” as the nursing home that my mom would take me to visit in the 1970’s. 5. The closet that smelled like a locker room due to some well-used men’s running shoes. 4. The basement that smelled like a backed-up sewer (because it actually had a backed up sewer). 3. The baby’s room where mom & dad forgot to empty the diaper pail. 2. The vacant rental with recently repainted walls and trim, as well as newly refinished floors, that had been shut tight for a few days…until I opened the front door and experienced it’s unique chemical cocktail. 1. The house with the cats. (I DON’T want to talk about it.) Here’s the take-away: If you’re trying to sell a home and your nose isn’t working very well (or it’s become de-sensitized to a particular smell), it’s a smart thing to solicit the assistance of somebody with sufficient olfactory skills. Please. Let’s avoid “that smell.”
