A Huge Sale up in Smoke

How unfortunate for the seller, the buyer, the buyer's agent and myself to have lost a huge sale due to heavy cigarette odor in the house. The majority of buyers find this to be an immediately objectionable environmental issue to overcome.

How many times have you walked into an otherwise lovely home, only to discover the smell wafting throughout is not the remnants of the dinner's aroma, not the lovely fresh picked flowers sitting so peacefully on the mantle, not the soft candle scent burning on the counter top, and not grandma's fresh baked chocolate chip cookies sitting so tantilizing on a plate on the kitchen table, but the unmistakeable tobacco smoke odor that seems to permeate every nook and cranny?

And how do you tell your client, they have the right to live their life as they see fit, but if they want to sell this million dollar home, it has to be presented with the same care and attention to detail (olfactory details included) as a million dollar home should command? No matter how many days or how many ways you tell clients about this, they just don't seem to get it and just refuse to amend their habits. They are under the mistaken impression spraying an aromatic, or simply opening a window will abate the odor. What they fail to realize or accept, is nicotine adheres to and is actually absorbed by latex paint, is absorbed into fabrics such as carpeting, curtains, clothing, and sucked through the home's air vents.

If you are a serious smoking seller, you must be prepared to change your smoking habits, and the first is not to smoke indoors nor where the odor can waft back into the house. Inconvenient? Maybe, but if you are serious about selling your home, you may have suffer the inconvenience. After all, you are asking prospective buyers to suffer your smoke and they are the ones with the money that came to buy your home. (And yes, I am a smoker, but never smoke in my home.)