Tip for homesellers:

[MineralMan]

Do not cook cabbage or curry if your realtor is showing your house. It is not a good idea.

[SoCalDem]

1. or fish

[MineralMan]

3. Especially lutefisk, if you're in Minnesota.

An unpleasant odor in a home guarantees that the potential buyers will not be actual buyers.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. They say you should bake bread before a showing.

Definitely not cabbage (or brussels sprouts, or anything exotic).

What made you bring this up - house hunting?

[MineralMan]

4. Actually, I meant to post it in the Lounge, where there

is a thread about a roasted cabbage recipe. But, oh well, it's good advice anyhow.

Chocolate chip cookies are even better than bread. Time it so they're done and on a plate near the entrance when the realtor brings the buyers. Of course, you should leave, too.

I'm not house hunting right now. We bought our house in 2004. I did encounter one house then, though, that had had years of curry making in its history. We passed.

On the other hand, we bought a house that had been owned by smokers. We're smokers. As I told the realtor, 20% of adults in Minnesota smoke, so it's not an absolute deal-killer. We got a good deal.

[Mariana]

5. My agent baked chocolate chip cookies

when she put on an open house. It worked, too - we got a buyer that day!

[SoCalDem]

6. Our experience too.. except I baked a big pan of home made cinnamon rolls

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. I wonder if the smell of a basement meth lab would be a turnoff.

this from someone who would have not a clue about the smell of a meth lab.

But I've seen them on TV.

[Sherman A1]

9. Had one across the street years ago

I was on a ladder painting the outside of my house when one patrol car after another started pulling up and out came the occupants (the old folks that lived there had passed away and their "charming" son had taken over the property starting his own unlicensed pharmaceutical production company). I just kept painting & watching the show.

Eventually the house was taken over by rehabbers and it was sold to a nice young couple who have been there for years.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. So a basement meth lab really can move the property!

But I'd probably go with the baking apple pie.

[Sherman A1]

17. It moved the occupants

and then the house. It was interesting at the end of the arrests when one of the officers came over to me and asked that if I see anyone in that house again to call them immediately. A couple of days later, they were back and so were the police shortly thereafter. A few months later the re-habbers arrived.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Here's my big tip--CLEAN YOUR HOUSE!

I walked through so many houses where people couldn't bother to make their beds or pick up crap off the floor. I'm not saying you need to keep it like a Martha Stewart photo shoot, but no one wants to see your dirty socks and underwear on the floor and step through your "goat trails" around debris.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Years ago, while house hunting, we looked at a house

that nobody had bothered to even tidy up. Unmade beds, dirty clothes on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, kids' toys and other stuff all over the place. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

[TwilightGardener]

13. Yep--I understand that sometimes we didn't give people

much notice to look at the house, but it's not like I expected dusting and vacuuming and putting away grooming products in the bathroom. I just wanted to not trip over clutter.

[raccoon]

10. I don't know, MM, some people think curry prevents Alzheimer's. :silly: nt

[LancetChick]

12. You can tell a lot about people while house hunting.

A family member was house hunting and I went along for the ride. We saw one house which was beautiful, and very well kept. Their cat, however, was very thin, and as a cat owner myself, I looked around for water dishes, which were nowhere to be found. So we filled a bathroom sink with water and the cat leaped onto the counter and started drinking like the sink was his oasis in the middle of the Sahara. The realtor said there are a lot of houses she sees where the pets are not well cared for. Very dismaying. Family member did not buy that house, by the way.

[pinboy3niner]

14. And have a neighbor take your Obama lions during the showing

Having even one prospective buyer ripped to shreds tends to put a damper on the showing for the rest of them.

[Uncle Joe]

16. If Rush Limbaugh visits

make sure you clean out the litter box.

Thanks for the thread, MineralMan.