Tips and Tools for Making Your House Attractive – Pet Smells

Question:  We have 2 dogs and a cat that live most of the time indoors, I am nervous that we may be use to the pet smell (to our family it is not noticeable).   What do you suggest we do to make sure that prospective buyers do not smell any traces of our pets?  Any tips and tools you suggest we try to eliminate odor?  

Answer:  This is a serious issue with many sellers and can be quite costly if not addressed.  Fortunately there are good solutions and your home can be made odor free and inviting to prospective buyers.

But don’t blame all stenches on Fido & Kitty!  Other malodorous odors come from us: smoking, cooking, fouled food, garbage, mildew & mold and of course plain old body odor (yes, the human kind!).  All these smells can be a turnoffs and cause buyers to just turn around and walk out of the home (been there…believe me).

The answer to foul smells is a varied as they themselves.  Most are self-evident, if the seller is cognizant.  Stop smoking inside (or better yet, altogether), thoroughly clean the home (a couple cleaning ladies can do wonders in one day), stop the source of water if you have a mold problem and most all of us now have indoor plumbing and soap. 

In many occasions, depending on the severity and cause of the problem, more costly solutions are required.  If we have a urine problem with the carpet, pull it out.  Heavy smoking & cooking may call for priming and repainting the entire interior of the home. In both these scenarios the cost/benefit analysis strongly favors doing the work.

An easy and less costly solution is to use an “ozone generator” to remove the odors.  Ozone, (O3), contains three atoms of oxygen rather than the two atoms we normally breathe.  Ozone is the second most powerful sterilizer in the world and can be used to destroy bacteria, viruses and odors.  The third oxygen atom of ozone makes it extremely reactive.  The atom readily attaches itself to other odor molecules and changes their chemical structure.  This process is called oxidation and makes for a very environmentally friendly solution.     

So yes, if you have pet odors, you have a problem.  But like most problems it can be solved, you just need to know where to turn for the answers.