Home Series: Will Baking Cookies Sell Your Home Faster? – Consult with Bruce Coleman, Vancouver Mortgage Broker
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Will Baking Cookies Sell Your Home Faster?
There is a common belief out there that if you’re trying to sell your Vancouver home faster you should bake some homemade cookies beforehand. The idea is that the scent of homemade cookies harkens our memories back to when we were children and the scent of freshly oven baked cookies reminds us of the home in which we were raised.
The question is whether there is any validity to the commonly held belief. Well, as you can guess – when it comes to marketing, they study and test everything and this includes this common urban myth about whether the smell of fresh baked cookies will entice a buyer into the right mindset.
So, is there any truth to this common held belief?
Baking Cookies Will Not Sell Your Home Faster
That’s right, baking cookies before you open up the home to buyers will not sell your home any faster. The new research shows that if anything, baking cookies not only doesn’t sell your home more quickly, it may even have the reverse effect.
That might sound odd but it seems that cookie baking may even be more of a distraction than a help when it comes to selling your home. In a recent WashingtonStateUniversity report, the smell of baking cookies is considered to a “complex scent.”
A complex scent actually distracts people who are trying to critically examine your home because they wonder what comprises the scent. They spend time trying to identify what type of cookie was baked.
And, if you’re thinking that putting out a tray of baked cookies will help when you are showing your home and will entice viewers into a positive mindset then you can also throw that idea out the window as well. Most people who followed the realtor’s advise and put out a tray of cookies for prospective viewers most often ended up with an untouched tray of cookies at the end of the day.
Also, it was discovered that the smell of baked cookies may even make some prospective buyers suspicious that you using the smell of fresh baked cookies to mask some other underlying scent.
What Scents Are the Best When it Comes to Selling a Home?
Researchers discovered that there are simple scents which are more pervasive and enticing to prospective buyers.
Many prospective buyers imply want the house to smell clean. However, there are also a several simpler scents that are less distracting and actually may entice a more positive buying prospective for some potential home buyers.
The most appealing scents were found to be lemon, orange, green tea, basil, cedar, pine, and vanilla.
Researchers also found that you should also be careful with using too much potpourri as this is also considered a complex smell and may be to strong for those who are actually allergic too strong smelling scents.
The bottom line when it comes to selling your home is to forget about baking cookies and focus more on giving your home that clean smell instead. And, as a bonus, you won’t have to do all that extra cleaning up afterwards.
