Selling Your Home? You Need To Read This…

Honestly, does your home smell??

If you are planning to put your home on the market, you may want to get a second opinion on the way your home smells.

Many times we get used to odors in our home…whether it’s cigarette odor, doggy smell or strong food odors. Did you know odors in a home will turn away a buyer in a heartbeat?

We have shared this before but since it is coming into the season to buy and sell homes, Clear The Air thought it would be appropriate to share this article from Coldwell Banker again.

One of the top mistakes a home seller makes when trying to sell their home:

A recent survey of real estate agents by ActiveRain has confirmed that there are certain things a seller should avoid if they are trying to get their home sold for the best price in the least amount of time. Out of 1000 real estate agents interviewed by ActiveRain, 28% said Unpleasant Odors are the number one turn off to a potential home buyer. (Coldwell Banker’s recent article)

Here’s what they had to say:

Unpleasant Odors in the House – “Mr and Mrs. Seller, your house stinks!”

Most agents aren’t going to be this blunt. But in some cases they wish they could be. They’ll take a more tactical approach and say something like…..’during the time your house is on the market, it might be a good idea to smoke outside’.

But what they know is that nothing will stop a potential buyer in their tracks faster than a strong odor of any sort. In some cases this could just be the left over smell from last night’s dinner. In more extreme cases, agents tell horror stories of entering homes that have a bad smell of pet urine or smoking.

The main concern for the buyer is, of course, “is the house going to smell like this once we move in?” Real Estate agents confirm that many a buyer has passed on a home after coming to their own conclusion on that answer.

Your agent isn’t suggesting a fresh coat of paint and new carpet because they don’t like how things look. They are making this suggestion because they realize that the smoke odor in your home is going to be a major turn off for anyone thinking about buying your home.

How To Eliminate Cigarette Smoke Odor

Need to get rid of that pesky cigarette odor? Read on!

If you have bought or rented a new home and the previous dweller was a smoker, you are probably fed up with trying to get that sultry cigarette odor out of the house.

Did you know Clear the Air will remove cigarette odor from ANYWHERE? Cars, homes, carpets, rugs, clothes, offices and anywhere else cigarette odor has crept in to.

Unfortunately, cigarette odor has a way of creeping into the walls making it almost impossible to remove the odor completely.  Earth Care’s Clear The Air Odor Eliminator will pull these odors out of your house, 100% guaranteed!  Our product doesn’t even need to come in contact with the odor and it will remove the odors out of carpets, drapes, furniture, clothing and bedding.

Clear the Air is simple to use and is an inexpensive solution to odor elimination.  Here are the directions to removing cigarette smoke odor out of your home:

• Hang 1-2 Earth Care Odor Eliminator Bags in each room that smells like cigarette smoke. One bag will cover 50-100 square feet. Odor will be eliminated in 24 hours.
• A Bag will last 1-2 months, if room is heavily permeated with smoke odor the bag may need to be changed more often at first.
• If odors are particularly strong or room has been smoked in for years sprinkle Clear The Air Odor Eliminator for Carpet and Furniture granules on carpets and furniture. Leave down 24 hours and vacuum. Odors will be completely eliminated.
• One canister of Clear The Air Odor Eliminator for Carpet and Furniture covers 100 square feet; one bucket covers 900 square feet.
• Granules can also be placed in ashtrays and cigarette butt receptacles.

Of course, if you have any questions on removing cigarette smoke odor, please do not hesitate to call our helpful Customer Service Agent, Pat, at (800) 611-1611 or (760) 941-5302 or via email: pmolina@cleartheair.com

How To Safely Eliminate Home Odors

Clear The Air is non toxic and all green.

Earth Care’s Clear The Air is a naturally green product and 100% safe to use around pets and children.

We pride ourselves on not only the amazing things it can do, but also on the safety of Clear The Air. Check out why it is safe:

Earth Care is made from an all natural mineral. It is non toxic, non hazardous, non-caustic, and biodegradable. It can safely be used around pets and children. It is safe to sprinkle in your pet’s cage; it will not hurt your pet even if eaten. It can be applied directly to you pets fur; this is excellent if your pet has encountered a skunk, or to get rid of the “doggie” smell.

Many of the odor and pollution control products on the market today act merely as masking agents. This means they add chemicals to the air to cover up odors and actually increase the level of indoor pollutants in the process. Earth Care, on the other hand, truly eliminates odors and cleans the air by adsorbing and neutralizing odors. Earth Care Products are especially beneficial to those that suffer from chemical sensitivity which can be aggravated by fragrances.

Earth Care is safe for Planet Earth. To dispose of Earth Care simply add to your soil, it is an excellent nitrogen soil amendment.

Sell Or Rent Your Home Faster

Property management companies and Real Estate Brokers and Agents deal with odor issues on a routine basis. Cigarette, pet, musty/mildew, dead rodent, and cooking odors are most common and make a home harder to sell or rent.

Real Estate is often slow selling/renting or discounted due to odor issues. It has been reported that approximately 5-10% of all listing have odor issues that may impact the sale. Clear The Air Odor Eliminators are an easy, inexpensive way to solve the problem and get your property sold or rented.

Clear the Air does not have to come into contact with the odor producer; it will pull the odors from the carpet pad, and sub-floor. Clear The Air draws in odors like a powerful magnet. The odors are adsorbed, and neutralized without any fragrances. Clear The Air does not cover up odors; it literally “clears the air” leaving the air fresh and clean. Clear The Air is made from an all natural mineral, is non toxic and biodegradable and safe for Planet Earth. It is also safe around children and pets even if eaten.

Check out how to eliminate odors in a house:

• Hang 1 or 2 bags in each room that has odor. Some air circulation is best. One bag covers approximately 100 square feet. Bags will last approximately 3 months; we suggest leaving them up until house is sold/rented.
• If you have pet urine odors in the carpet (including cat urine) sprinkle Clear The Air Odor Eliminator for Cat Urine on carpet, tile, concrete, furniture, or any other surface. Leave down overnight; sweep or vacuum up and odor will be completely eliminated. One canister covers approximately 100 square feet.
• If you have odors outside on lawn or shrubs sprinkle Clear The Air Odor Eliminator for Lawns down. Leave down indefinitely, Clear The Air is an excellent nitrogen soil amendment. One canister covers approximately 100 square feet.
• If you have a dead rodent odor please click How to Eliminate Dead Rodent Odors PDF
• Many agents keep a case of bags in their trunk.

Preparing Your Home For The Holidays

Everyone wants a nice clean and odor free home for the holidays.  Clear the Air would like to share some helpful holiday ready home tips with our fans.

Remember to take advantage of our Odor Eliminator products to get your home smelling it’s best!

To get your home ready for entertaining, some simple tweaks to your furniture arrangement and home furnishings can do wonders. It takes just a little to make your space more guest-friendly and attractive. Some tips you might want to consider for a holiday or dinner party:

Make Room: Open up your floor space by arranging furniture to allow guests to move around freely. Remove furniture pieces you will not be needing to a temporary holding place. This might even be a good time to consider whether you need these at all.

Introduce Order: Take a look around to make sure that your room looks comfortable and does not present a haphazard look, no matter how casual you want it to be. Mixing too many sizes, scales, colors or textures can make a space seem confusing and even uninviting.

Formal vs. Informal: Decide beforehand whether you want a formal or informal look. For a more formal arrangement you need more symmetry in how you arrange your furniture and accessories. Go with more muted or deeper colors, and stick to just very few. For a more casual look, you can go for more of an informal balance or asymmetry. You can be more playful with your colors and textures and themes.

Express a Theme: Having a theme helps you unify your decor, and could add to a more festive atmosphere. Continue your party’s theme from room to room to give an uninterrupted flow to the ambiance.

Nature: Bring nature indoors with arrangements of leaves, branches, twigs, or other natural elements that emphasize the season or your theme.

Take Advantage of your Walls: Hang artwork or mirrors to dress up your walls. Wall hangings or artwork that go with the season or occasion can continue the theme of your party, and make your space more festive. For holiday entertaining, strings of lights, ornaments, and removable wall decals can be also be used.

Lighting: Lighting is crucial in setting up the ambiance of a room. Make sure you use it to create the effect you want. Multi-layered lighting lets you adjust the amount of light you need at different points in your evening. Candles can add tremendously to your decor, and your fireplace is also a source of light.

Focus: Have a focal point in the room to anchor the space, and decorate around your favorite item or feature giving it the place of honor.

No Crowding: Remember to have enough room at the table without crowding your guests. Either use a table with leaves or set up another table. You can extend the one you have by adding another table instead of crowding people around it. If none of these options are available, consider doing away with a sit down dinner or have fewer guests.

Personalize It: Above all, don’t hesitate to give your space your own personal touch. Everything does not have to match, and unusual furnishings will make your place more interesting, and personal. Just remember to arrange it in a way that makes sense instead of chaos. In the end, do what feels right to you, because it is your home.

Make Sure Your Home Is Ready To Sell

Clear the Air would like to share some helpful tips to selling your house.  Of course, if you experience any sort of odor in your home, Clear the Air is guaranteed to completely eliminate any and all odors.

1. Clean your house and keep it clean. If you are planning to live in your home while it is on the market, you have GOT to make daily cleaning a part of your selling plan.  It may be a pain to keep things spotless but cleanliness is important! A dirty home will give the potential buyers sense that the home is not well taken care of and can keep them from coming back a second time to look at your home with an offer.
2. Fix the broken stuff.  Shutter hanging off the house?  Piece of trim missing?  Door sticking?  Get it fixed!  If those little things are visible, your potential buyers start wondering what other maintenance issues your home might have and get scared. Make sure there wouldn’t be anything that could (1) keep buyers away and (2) knock dollars off of your asking price.
3. Eliminate odor from your home and make it smell good. Last thing you want is people to walk in your home and say, “It smells like feet in here.”  Guess what?  Each house was the home of boys but not everyone has to smell it!  Smell is very powerful and instantly sets the tone for your potential buyer’s experience in your house.  Avoid anything over-powering (some people are sensitive to strong perfumes) but find a way to make the air clean and homey.
4. De-personalize your home.  Want your  buyers to imagine themselves living in your house?  Then take YOU out of it!  You have got to take down your personal photos, scrapbooks, take down from the mantle the carving of your last name.  Buyers need to see their family living here … not yours.
5. De-clutter your home.  Potential buyers will turn their nose up at homes that had a lot of “stuff.”  Why?  They looked small.  They looked like they were running out of storage room.  They looked messy. The clutter keeps these homes from looking move-in ready. You want to make your home look spacious and ready to accommodate another family’s possessions.  Why would anyone want a house that appears to NOT have room for anything?
   
6. Utilize your garage or rent a storage room to hide bulky furniture. We packed away our piano, several chairs and extra side tables to highlight the space in our home.  You don’t want people bumping into furniture or having to turn sideways to get around. Likewise, take everything off your kitchen counters.
7. Make the exterior of your home look as good as possible.  Landscaping and the exterior of your home are just as important as the inside. Power-wash your house and sidewalk.  You can’t necessarily control the color of your brick but you can clean it, and doing so will take tons of dirt off and make your home instantly all the more inviting.  Freshen up beds with mulch.  Trim bushes and trees — especially those in front of any windows.  Overgrown shrubbery is not attractive and keeps natural light out of your home, making rooms feel dark and small.  Plant new flowers in your beds and/or add a few flower pots to your porch.  Flower brighten up your home and help your home feel welcoming.
8. Figure out your budget for any possible upgrades and cleaning services.  We can’t all afford to completely renovate our homes before putting it on the market but most of us can spend some money upgrading different aspects of our houses. Granite is cheaper than ever and, if you can afford it, a HUGE draw for buyers.  Can’t afford granite?  Well, what about repainting your kitchen or replacing outdated pulls and knobs?  Or spending a few bucks and a few hours to put in new ceramic tile?  If you can do the work yourself, you’ll save a ton of money and realize some updates are very easy (and cheap) to pull off.
9. Likewise, if you take a few minutes to research, you can find reputable carpet cleaners and window washers who will help get your house in ship-shape, making older carpet and windows fresh and sparking.
10. Get out of the house when it is being showed.  If you know a buyer is coming through — LEAVE! Take a walk, go to Target, head to the park but go somewhere so your buyers have the chance to consider your house for their future home.