I have a condo for sale. It’s empty, so it will be smelling stale. The realtor suggested a room plug in air freshener. I’m not a fan of fake floral scent, or apples, or cinnamon vanilla, or whatever. I don’t want the condo to smell bad, but I don’t want to drive people away with some strong smell, either. I can get up once a month or so to air it out, but that’s probably it. What makes a house smell nice and clean to you?
Pine-Sol. But I’m a freak for that stuff, so it could very well just be me.
If one has to go with an artificial scent, I prefer the “Fresh Linen/White Linen/Spring Linen/etc.” family of odors. It doesn’t smell *like *anything, so it doesn’t strike me as a wrong attempt at apples or jasmine or something natural, it just smells clean. Which I guess means it smells of cleaning chemicals.
You could try something like Bath and Body Works’ “fresh cotton” stuff. They have air fresheners of various types available in that scent. Lots of different air freshener brands also have similar fragrances, usually called something to do with cotton or linen, and they smell like fresh laundry. I usually like those better than the fake flowers or apples and cinnamon and whatnot.
Thanks - I am cleaning with pine sol so it will smell like that for a bit, but the fresh cotton/ linen sounds so much better than floral.
Well, being clean helps a lot…
No, I’m not criticizing your personal cleanliness, but the fact is that cleaning must be done regularly. Dust settles even in empty rooms.
Pine Sol is a good cleaner. Simple Green, bleach, and Murphy’s Oil soap also seem to to be favorites. You need to get the dust up and wet mop the hard floors - eliminate mildew! (Use bleach for anything like that you find in odd corners of the bathroom or kitchen). With the place being empty this should be fairly easy. Of course, clean any carpets that need cleaning, too. You may opt for a steam cleaner/shampoo unit (rentable at many places) rather than just vacuuming.
Make sure anything left from a former resident is removed from the kitchen. I am currently involved in a house remodel and among other things I pulled the stove away from the way and cleaned up 30 years of grease drips and splatters. Finally killed that lingering food odor.
Wash the walls if you’re planning on selling the place. If there are any lingering odors from, say, cooking or a smoker being a former resident you might even want to paint the walls - use a sealing primer then at least one coat over that.
Air the place out. That is, open the windows/doors and let fresh air circulate.
That should do for awhile if no one is living in there.
Personally, I am NOT a fan of air fresheners - always makes me wondering what people are hiding. However, I am not a typical person so this might well be an expected thing these days. Just don’t over do it - some people (and one of them might be a potential buyer) are sensitive to these things. The place shouldn’t smell like a perfume factory.
I have had the entire condo painted and the carpets are being cleaned this week. The kitchen and bathroom will be thoroughly cleaned, too. I just had the stove put in last year so I was able to clean out under it. It’s a drop- in, not a slide in. My daughter lived there in grad school and we rented it to a friend of hers after my daughter graduated. I don’t think her friend realized that you could wash the drip pans on the stove so they just got tossed. It will be clean, but you’re right. Mopping the floors when I’m there will freshen it, and I will open the doors, too. This isn’t the best time to be selling. I’m guessing it might be next spring by the time it does.
Patience is needed for a seller in this market. Good luck!
I agree about the “fresh linen” type scents. To me they smell like someone’s just done laundry.
Bake some bread, put vanilla in the fridge and burn some incense.
These mask bad smells and also make to house smell nice.
Another vote for a linen scented something or other. I have a few linen scented candles that I tend to burn. They have a very “fresh” smell to them.
I remember reading (maybe here) that when you do a move out inspection on an apartment, it doesn’t hurt to dump some bleach in the toilets. The bleach smell will help convince the landlord that you really scrubbed every nook and cranny. I’s suggest doing that if you can do it within an hour or two of people looking at the place. I think bleach evaporates somewhat quickly and I don’t think the smell will linger very long. But it will make it smell clean. Just make sure you don’t use so much you give people headaches. A couple of cap fulls in each toilet should do the trick. Maybe a splash in the kitchen drain as well.
But I think, by far, your best bet is to just open a few windows on each wall and get some air moving through the place. Provided it’s 1)a decent temperature outside* 2)It’s not muggy out* and 3)It smells nice outside.
*Think Non AC/Non furnace weather. If people are going to be arriving in shorts and a t-shirt you’re safe. If they are going to want to be able to come in and take their jackets off, don’t do it.
I’m not a fan of these techniques because I wonder what they are trying to hide…especially if the house is vacant. When we were looking at houses and I smelled baking bread, I thought to myself, “oh isn’t that just original”. :dubious:
If the condo is going to be vacant and you won’t be able to make frequent cleaning visits, would you be able to leave a small fan on to keep air circulating and reduce that stale “empty” smell? Will you be notified when the property is being shown? If so you can give it a quick touch-up with some Febreeze and a Swiffer to freshen it up.
I’ve been watching a lot of HGTV recently and staging is a popular method for helping a property move quicker. From my own experience, a house that appears occupied was much more interesting/appealing than an empty one. I know they rent the furnishings but if you’re sitting on the property for a long time, that can get expensive, too.
Good luck!
Based on this, you’ll probably be fine. You cleaned it, so you’re good there, the carpets are getting cleaned, so that’ll help and you painted. Painting the entire place and then leaving it unoccupied, it’ll probably smell like paint for close to a month. Personally, I don’t mind the smell of fresh paint. Between the paint and the carpet cleaners I wouldn’t attempt to add any more smell to it.
I love the smell of fresh paint, and second the “linen” or “cotton” scents, if any. Can you leave a window cracked open? I do like it when a place is aired out. You don’t have to have a window wide open, either, to let fresh air in to constantly circulate.
Change the furnace filter once a month and run the furnace fan on “ON” instead of “AUTO” once in a while to circulate and clean the air (if you have a forced air furnace).
Refresh the water in all the drains every time you’re there, including floor drains and running the washing machine and dishwasher.
Sprinkle a mild smelling carpet powder on the carpets and vacuum, some will remain for a subtle scent.
Dust everywhere. Dust really holds smells. Wash window treatments, they trap a lot of dust.
Don’t go with the plug- ins. They can really turn people off more than a stale scent. Everyone knows an empty house needs airing out but people think a highly air freshener-ed house must have a bad smell problem. Unlit, lightly scented candles however can add a nice smell, or a reed diffuser.
I agree, a linen type smell is a better scent than flowers or fruit. Once you’re out the first month you’ll know if they’re any problems and then you can work on specific spots. Most clean houses don’t smell that bad when left unopened for a while. Over time they actually smell more and more bland as the usual odors of people in a house fade.
Fabreeze has a room spray called “Rocky Springs and Cool”-- that shit is amazing. It’s along the lines of the clean cotton linen smells but. . . less musty. Don’t get me wrong, I like the cotton smells, but they can be a little heavy sometimes. Rocky Springs and Cool is just. . . it’s amazing. Amazon link so you know what the bottle looks like.
Ahh but most buyers are not astute dopers! 
Without reading further in the thread to see if it’s mentioned later, I’ll endorse this one on the basis of something a realtor told us some time ago as we were preparing to sell:
Bake some cookies!
For me, the one exception to this rule is citrus scent-- a house scented with lemon or or something similar smells clean to me.
How is the place getting dusted while its unoccupied? I just bought a vacant house and my Realtor was a friend’s mom - and I learned a lot.
She highly advises owners with unoccupied homes to bring in a housekeeper once a week just to dust, vaccuum and wipe down surfaces, flush the toilets to keep the ring from appearing, make sure there is toilet paper (people will use your bathroom if they have to) etc. Also, while the housekeeper is there, they should open all the windows while they clean. She has someone she works with who does unoccupied houses (and unoccupied houses are pretty easy to clean, so its pretty cheap). If you are dusting when you are up once a month, perhaps a neighbor would open windows for you for half an hour once a week?
Is the condo empty or is it staged? If its staged, setting out some scented, unlit candles as mentioned upthread. Or a diffuser in a clean scent. If its empty, candles are going to look silly. Your realtor might be able to help stage it as well. Staging does help a lot. A well done staging can trick a lot of people.
(eta - coffee grounds are another scent that lingers).