Open Houses This Weekend

We headed to a few open houses this weekend. For me it was both part of this research project as well as our interest in considering a move to a new house a little further into the country. We currently don't have much yard or privacy as we live in a small city. I was excited when we made the plan to do this, so I could see the great techniques realtors are using to enhance the home shopping experience and create that "at home" feel for a potential buyer. We looked at 4 houses this past Sunday.

House #1 was a nice older home on a creek in a little country town. The realtor was friendly and the house was well lit, there was a reed diffuser on the counter between the kitchen and the main living area. With light from big windows, this house showed well, and the light aroma of the reed diffuser was pleasant when you entered. There were no overbearing house odors, but I was concerned about the liquid reed diffuser. I don't think the reed diffusers work that well, and I am always worried that they will get knocked over and I would not want to have to clean that spill or deal with the saturation of that fragrance/alcohol blend into hardwood floors and carpets. Still I see a lot of them in use at homes for sale, I think because they are a high end product and continuous action, so they are set and left alone, and they have better than normal fragrances.

House #2 was in the same town, and was also an older home, but smelled like an old frat house. Not the smell of beer, but the smell of an old house. I think it's a smell of old wood mixed with termite insecticide. The house was rented what appeared to be a group of guys, and they weren't slobs, but the house was not that clean. They smoked in at least one room, as there was a pack of cigarettes and ash tray in the room, and a residual odor. The realtor was nice enough, but she was reading a book when we walked in and was surprised as we rounded the corner, saying "sorry I was all caught up in my book and didn't hear you come in". Now I know they are independent sales reps basically, but reading a romance novel on the job is just kind of lazy in my book, and the lack of attention to details of the home staging, like the aromas in the home was also lazy, particularly with the amount of scented candles all over the place, she could have just lit a few to create some kind of mood other than "quick, let's get out of here"

House #3 was off of a side country road, and was fresh inside, as it was a nice breezy cool day and all of the windows were open. When we went into the basement we were assaulted (meant with all feeling of the word) but a horrid artificial spiced apple potpourri aroma that screamed dollar store, or worse. The basement was finished and nice enough, but with this cheap aroma in the air did not make for a pleasant experience, it was actually nice to walk into the musty utility part of the basement and escape the spiced apples. That being said it was a nice enough house, and was both small and priced very high for its size. I would think that when one slaps a premium price on a property, particularly in this market, they would want to utilize tools that were of an equivalent or close caliber. I was a bit surprised at this, an expensive house made to feel cheap because they used a cheap, discount, low quality aroma in an influential space. I said as we left that the house would be worth it for $50,000 less, did they put the house onto the discount rack in my mind through the use of a discount rack smell?

House #4 was musty, older, and when we walked in an hour before the open house was to end, had the lights turned off and the realtor was evidently locking up. She said as we walked in, "oh it's been a slow day so I was about to close up and head home". The house layout was actually nice, and we may have liked it, had we not felt so unwelcome when we walked in. The tone was set, and as we looked at the basement and said to one another how roomy it was, I said "I hate this place", and we left to go take care of our errands for the afternoon. If there was even something to hook into that was appealing to the experience of entering this home, I might have given it a chance, but there wasn't. I know this wasn't just the "old house smell" that was prevalent, it was the total atmosphere, but if there was a pleasant olfactory element to the initial experience I might have not shut my mind this this building before giving it a chance. The ironic thing is that the house was on a great lot, was pretty roomy and was in a great neighborhood, but still the negative impression on walking in prevailed beyond those elements.

What I learned from visiting these open houses?

-During our day looking at open houses 2 out of the 4 realtors we met were pretty lazy. While I have no way to motivate them, I can offer them an easy solution to resolving the aromatic nightmare that prevailed at these houses. If the rule is that 50% of the realtors are on the lazy side, then I simply have to make sure that my scent machine is so convenient, effective, and easy to use that the laziest of realtors can enjoy the benefits of creating a controlled fragrance environment.

-Cheap smell = cheap house, at least from a perception standpoint, and as I have written before, perception is all that matters. A premium property filled with cheap fragrance, will be perceived as a cheap house. It it's a discount rack fragrance, then the homeowner is broke and you can lowball an offer. 

-Every house has it's own unique aroma, and normally that's not too appealing to anyone other than the people who live there. Whether that odor is the combination of a dog, your kids, incense, and candles, or whatever the mix, it is unique and potentially polarizing. A consistent, cohesive olfactory message will be a much stronger sales tool than an amalgamation of smells.

-Dry, clean and safe delivery systems are key. While I know that the reeds are popular, this is a container of oil and alcohol that can spill, which will be damaging and a mess to clean up. If a realtor uses this and it spills, it is their responsibility to pay for damages. There is no need to take this risk. Use a dry controlled delivery system and don't take the chance of damaging a home you are trying to sell. 

Next time we head out we will go to the high end homes, the ones we can't afford, and see what techniques they are working with to create a sense of home to potential buyers. With one exception, we didn't find much effort at this on our past Sunday excursion. I am accelerating my development work of my new scent diffuser as it is clear there is a need for the unit I have designed amongst the realtors we met this past weekend.