You can throw your smokey clothes into the washing machine, but how can you get the stink out of an entire house?
Research shows: buyers aren’t interested anyways…
“Smoking Reduces House Values By 30%, Realtor Survey Suggests
By: The Canadian Press
April 17th, 2013
Homeowners risk coughing up big bucks if they’re also smokers, a survey of Ontario real estate agents and brokers suggests.
The survey suggested that smoking in the home can reduce the value of a resale property by up to 29 per cent.
The study was sponsored by Pfizer Canada, a pharmaceutical company whose products include a smoking cessation medication.
It estimates a potential loss of up to $107,000 on a home in Ontario, where the average price is currently around $369,000.
The study showed that an overwhelming majority of 401 real estate agents and brokers surveyed agreed that it is more difficult to sell a home where owners have smoked.
1/4 unwilling to buy a smoker’s home
More than half of respondents — 56 per cent — said most buyers are less likely to purchase a home where people have smoked, and 27 per cent said most buyers are actually unwilling to buy a home where people have smoked.
In Canada, an estimated 15 per cent of homes have at least one regular smoker.
The study found that almost half, or 44 per cent of respondents, said smoking in the home affects resale value.
Of these, one in three said smoking in the home may lower the value by 10 to 19 per cent and a further one in three said it may lower the value by 20 to 29 per cent.
“Smoking has a profound impact on how appealing a home is to a prospective buyer,” said David Visentin, a real estate agent and co-host of the W Network’s Love it or List program.
“It stains walls and carpets, and leaves a smell that can be hard to eliminate. Many prospective buyers are really put off by homes that have been smoked in and they can be very challenging to sell.”
The survey was conducted between Jan 31 and Feb. 6 and is considered by the pollsters to be accurate 19 times out of 20 within a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Do people really still smoke?
That’s soooooo 1962!
I actually had this conversation with a friend the other night. I asked, “Do people still smoke? I mean, in today’s world of pilates, Moksha yoga, gluten-free-this, soy-that, body-cleanse-diets; how many people still smoke?”
A lot, apparently!
“Drive by a construction site,” I told my friend, “And there’s your smokers! Those guys all have a dart hanging off their bottom lip! But who else?”
Okay, so I’m a bit of an elitist sometimes. And I’m told I like to generalize too.
In 1965, a whopping 61% of men, and 38% of women in Canada smoked.
In 1999, 25% of all Canadians smoked.
In 2012, 17% of all Canadians smoked. This, according to the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey found HERE.
So the numbers are down, but people still do it.
And there is no tougher sell in all of real estate (fine, maybe a house with dead bodies…) than grandma and grandpa’s home where about 100,000 cancer-sticks have been lit over the past four decades. There’s no mistaking that feeling, and nothing compares. Picture a house filled with cats, or dirty shag carpet, or a hoarder’s wares – nothing compares to the cigarette-house.
We’re almost at the point now where the house needs to be torn down, because even if you can get rid of the stench, the “feel,” and everything inside the home, buyers just don’t like idea of living there.
Many of my buyers get turned off if they even smell cigarettes! “Oh, a smoker lives here for sure,” they’ll tell me, as they mentally discount the property, and in many cases, disqualify it.
To a non-smoker, the smell of smoke is one that offends the senses the most, and many buyers just can’t make that compromise.
Maybe it’s a personality clash as well. I was kidding around when I talked about construction workers and smoking, but some people, in today’s super-health-conscious 2013, want absolutely nothing to do with a smoker’s house or condo, as it feels somewhat “beneath them.”
This goes beyond the subtle, competitive battle that buyers wage with the home-owners when they compare university diplomas, photos of good looking boyfriends & girlfriends, or the brand-name labels in the closet. This is about lifesytle, health, and I might even say one’s self-image.
I’m not projecting, here. I’m speaking from experience with active buyers, and I think that the survey in the article above backs me up rather nicely.
I’ve only once had to sell a hard-core smoker’s property.
It was a condo in the east-end, and the sellers had been there for about 11-years.
The carpet, walls, and furniture had soaked up a decade’s-worth of Camel’s and Matinee Ultra’s, and I told the sellers, point-blank, “This is not going to be an easy sell.”
The sellers disagreed, as most would, and suggested, “Buyers can see past this. They can wash the walls, shampoo the carpets, and bring in their own stuff. They won’t care.”
Oh yes, they would. In fact, they did.
This was an 1,100 square foot condo that sold for $362,000. And we’re talking about three years ago!
The buyer completely gutted the place – ripped out just about everything he was allowed to.
He removed all the carpet and under-padding, all the light fixtures, the appliances, doors, and even shelving in the closets.
And then he brought in a company that specializes in removing smokey-odours, and they washed every square inch of the walls and ceilings, twice.
If that condo hadn’t been home to a smoker, it would have sold for over $400,000, no questions asked. In fact, with a little staging and TLC, I would have listed it at $429,900. Maybe that’s not the 30% that the above article suggests, but it’s a pretty big chunk of change for the average condo seller!
In the end, we’re all big boys and big girls, and we make our decisions accordingly.
But I can’t remember the last time I was over at somebody’s house or condo and a guest was smoking on the couch in the living room, as opposed to the back deck, balcony, or out on the street…
Geoff
at 9:08 am
As an asthmatic (who contrary to the movies, also runs, plays soccer, and swims) I could never live in a house with significant smell of smoking for legitimate health reasons.
Joe Q.
at 9:12 am
We are in the same boat as Geoff. Asthmatic in the family. When we were house-hunting, if we walked into a place that smelled of smoke, we politely thanked the sellers for their time and then walked right out.
Joe Q.
at 9:17 am
“The sellers disagreed, as most would, and suggested, “Buyers can see past this. They can wash the walls, shampoo the carpets, and bring in their own stuff. They won’t care.””
This is one of the major disconnects between smokers and non-smokers — smokers tend to underestimate the strength and persistence of smoke odours. It’s partly psychological, but mostly physiological (a highly weakened sense of smell in long-time smokers, due to smoke-induced damage to nasal tissues).
JC
at 2:16 pm
What many fail to realize is that many buyers can’t see past much of anything. They’ll walk into a room that is an odd color and take that house off their list altogether. When you tell them, just paint the room a different color, they say “it’s too much work”. It’s always struck me as strange as I usually count on painting anyway.
What annoys me the most about smokers is that they get so riled up about how YOU couldn’t possibly be smelling smoke on them, or in their home. As if you’re the crazy one.
George
at 9:39 am
My parents both smoke, but they smoke outside their home (and cars). It’s weird that they understand how smoking can kill property and vehicle values but choose to ignore how it kills their own body value.
Paully
at 10:27 am
Looks like buying a smoker’s house would be a smart contrarian play, if you are willing to do a total gut.
My old condo wreaked of curry when we moved in. In fact, one day about half way into our reno, I was priming the new baseboards with oil-based (very stinky) primer, and when my friend came in to help, he said, “wow, does it ever smell like curry in here.” It took painting 100% of the surfaces and replacing the entire kitchen to get the curry smell out.
JC
at 12:23 pm
In my experience most smokers are the last to realize that their homes smell like smoke, even when you tell them point blank and any feedback stating as much is buyers “just making excuses”.
I listed a condo last year and staged it. Showed great, in my humble opinion. The owner refused to admit that I could smell cigarette smoke inside the unit. I did open houses where several people came in and loved it but couldn’t get past the smell of cigarette smoke. “The owners are smokers” – not so much a question but a statement by visitors. No big surprise then that it didn’t sell. They subsequently listed with someone else (I refused) and it sold for more than $20,000 less than I’m sure it could have last year if they’d done what I’d asked them to, when I asked them to, to help get rid of the smell.
Joe Q.
at 12:29 pm
Exactly. Part of this is psychological (they’re used to the smell of smoke) but mostly physiological (they literally can’t smell the smoke, or anything else, very well) — due to destruction of nasal tissues.
Floom
at 10:20 am
My parents smoked and the smell permuated my clothes, jackets, knapsack – if I went to a friend’s house (a non-smoking home), their parents could tell my parents smoked. My dog smelled like smoke too. Disgusting.
For Geoff: way to make the asthmatics who can’t run, play soccer and swim feel bad. Hope you’re happy.
Geoff
at 10:53 am
That was not my intention and I apologize; it was poorly worded just that in almost every bit of media I see, you always see the fattest kid who can’t play sports trying to keep up and then inevitably he takes out his puffer and it’s like “Ah = Asthma = “Unathletic super chunk”.
CraigB
at 1:32 pm
Last place I bought there were smoldering ashtrays during the showing, and it was clear the home at been smoked in for decades, right down to the cigarette burns on the once beautiful hardwood floors. Put on over 75 litres of the binz primer/sealer, sanded and restained the floors (thankfully there was no carpet), and for under $1000 and probably 100 hours of work (luckily you can drink while painting), probably saved over $60,000 on the initial cost.
lui
at 8:31 am
You want to remove hard smells out of the house burn coffee beans.I know a crew member which goes into crime scene locations and cleans the “residue” and he says coffee beans and bottles of bleach is the only way to clean a scene without tearing out the walls and flooring.
Maggie K.
at 1:25 pm
The house that we are closing on next week is owned by a smoker. I would rather it not have been but the house and the location work for my husband and I and it is affirdable.
I will be washing/sealing the walls and every other hard surface and removing the carpet before we move in. I’ll try the coffee beans thing too.
My brother’s first home was formerly a heavy smoker’s home and they removed the smell completely so I am sure that we will too.
I do believe that we avoided competition because of the smoke factor (and possibly the pool).
Andy K.
at 4:11 pm
I will be moving out of the house where I have been boarding for the past couple of months in just a few days.
The owner, a heavy indoor smoker who I’m pretty sure has lost his sense of smell, has had his house on the market for more than a year and he just can’t figure out why it won’t sell. He puts plug-in deodorizers in every room, mops and vacuums like a fiend, opens all the windows, and complains to me that he found dust on my computer monitor in my room…the first thing a prospective buyer always checks, right?
The stubborn old fool, who also does not leave when the house is being shown (!) should probably just sit back and have another cigarette…he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.