Make sure your house smells OKA house that smells right sells right. "It should smell like a normal, clean house," Rona Fischman, principal broker of 4 Buyers Real Estate in Cambridge, Mass. "If it smells like it just had an industrial cleaning or a cover-up smell or of rotting garbage, it really turns people off." This is something you must get just right. You don't want to gross out buyers, but neither can you afford to freak them out. Any whiff of cat urine or dog bed, and your prospective buyer, unless he or she runs an animal rescue mission, is likely to make a quick exit. The same goes for that musty old basement smell. However, you don't want to go to town with chemicals to the point that your house smells like a hospital corridor. If there is an overpowering smell of bleach in your now-spotless basement, buyers will let their imaginations run wild about what you are hiding.
5 cheap tips to boost your home's value
