Are you a smoker and looking to sell your home? Or are you a realtor who has to sell a house that smells like cigarette smoke? You’ll find that few home buyers are interested in getting a property that stinks of smoke. Selling a house that smells like smoke is not an easy task.
However, there are specific steps you can take to reduce the smell and then sell your place. Potential buyers are much more likely to purchase a house from which you removed the smell of cigarette smoke and smoke residue. Selling a house that smells like smoke is much easier once you use air fresheners and air cleaners.
You’ll also want to pursue carpet cleaning and deep cleaning to get rid of the bad smells. Lastly, air conditioning, adding a fresh coat of paint, and removing smoke-filled furniture will also help remove the smoke odors. While selling a house that smells like smoke is not an easy process, you can accomplish that feat by bringing in the fresh air and removing the cigarette odor.
Keep reading to learn about all these important steps!
Will Smoke Residue Decrease My House Value?
Smoking cigarettes isn’t just bad for your lungs. When a house smells like smoke, the home’s resale value drops significantly. Research shows that non-smokers won’t have as much of a drop in their home’s value as smokers who smoke cigarettes inside their houses.
You’ll see that nearly any real estate agent will say that selling a home that smells like smoke is harder. One study from 2013 shows that 88 percent out of about 400 realtors polled state that it’s more arduous to sell a smoker’s house.
Smoke damage can lead potential buyers away from a sale and decrease the home value. You’ll find that it’s also difficult and costly to get rid of tobacco smoke from the house, but it’s not impossible.
How To Remove Smoke Residue from My House
To remove smoke residue from your house, you should get professional cleaning help. The right HVAC system can also provide air conditioning that can remove some of the smoky smells and air out your home.
You might need an air purifier or other air cleaners to remove the smell of cigarette smoke. When cleaning the carpets, floors, and countertops all over the house, use some baking soda, white vinegar, and other strong cleaning agents. You’ll also need to remove stinky furniture or renew the upholstery to remove the bad smells.
When their house no longer smells like cigarette smoke, homeowners have a much higher chance of selling their place without a hitch.
Air Cleaners
Air cleaners can help air out the bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and more when the house smells like smoke. Using several rotating fans and opening up the windows and doors can also help. Furthermore, you should purchase an air purifier to make a real difference and remove the smoke odor.
Extra smoke inhalation from wildfires can also lead to potential health problems, which is why an air purifier can help alleviate possible risks to your lungs and overall health. Don’t forget to change the air filters regularly in the air purifier to make sure it works well.
Do you have an HVAC system? If you do, make sure to replace the filters in that system as well.
Carpet Cleaning
Carpet cleaners include agents like:
- Carpet deodorizers
- Liquid carpet cleaners
- Powder carpet cleaners
- Baking soda with essential oils
Make sure to follow all the directions on each product that you use to clean your carpets and remove bad smells. Further, you may want to put some baking soda into the carpets. Leave it in for a few days before getting the vacuum out to remove it thoroughly.
You can also try steam-cleaning your carpets to get rid of the worst smoke odors. If you aren’t interested in getting any carpet cleaners, then professional steam cleaning services are an option.
Air Conditioning
Use your air conditioning system to effectively rotate the air and remove bad smells from the house. You may also want to get two ventilators to improve air circulation all around the house. You should put one ventilator right by a door or window to push out the stinky smells out of the home.
Replace all of the HVAC air filters regularly to ensure the air conditioning system works well. You should also clean out the air ducts to keep the air conditioning system working effectively.
Lastly, you may want to get a HEPA filter or activated charcoal to make the home smell better and get rid of cigarette smoke odors.
Repainting
Smoke residue can also cause the walls in your house to get dirty. You should try to clean the walls as best as you can. You can use a mixture of a quarter cup of white vinegar, half a cup of baking soda, and heated water to create a cleaning agent and remove the smoke stains from the walls.
However, if your walls still look rather messy, you may need to consider repainting the kitchen walls, bedroom walls, and/or living room walls. Do you have smoke residue in the basement? Then grab some paint for the basement as well.
Removing Smoke-Stained Furniture
If you’re looking for ways to increase a home’s value, you’ll surely want to get rid of cigarette smoke odors and remove smoke-stained furniture. Smoke can get into the smallest edges and corners of the house. However, it does not avoid couches, chairs, and beds.
You’ll need to completely remove smoke-stained furniture and replace it with brand-new sofas, love seats, beds, and chairs. Otherwise, leftover smoke can have a negative health impact on any non-smoker who moves into the home.
Continual exposure to residual thirdhand smoke can potentially raise a person’s risk of heart disease, respiratory issues, and even cancer.
However, if you cannot afford to replace smoke-stained furniture, you will need to wash any cushions, curtains, bedsheets, and furniture covers. You should get these items professionally dry cleaned if you can afford to.
Why Removing Smoke From Your House Is Important to the Sale
Based on polling, real estate agents describe that cigarette smoke in a house, including a stale smell of tobacco or stains on furniture and walls, can cut the price of a home by up to 30 percent.
For instance, if homes normally cost around $300,000 in your area, then your smoke-filled home may sell for as little as $210,000. As such, removing every hint of smoke from the home is vital for selling your house, especially at a higher price.
However, if you’re still having trouble selling a smoke-stained home or selling an ugly house in Idaho, you may want to find real estate investors and companies that buy houses Boise homeowners sell.
Cash home buyers Star residents need may buy properties in their as-is condition, which means you won’t even need to worry about smoke-stained walls or stale odors from cigarette smoke. If you’re looking for cash home buyers, you’re in luck because we buy houses Idaho homeowners sell! Contact us for more information.
Conclusion
You can take several simple steps to sell a house that smells like smoke. Add air cleaners and air purifiers to the home, clean the carpets, remove or wash smoke-stained furniture, and air condition the home to purify the environment.
Before you know it, you’ll have sold the house for a fair price and can move on to your next home with your family.