If it smells, it won't sell : Rooftop Views

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If it smells, it won't sell

At midnight tonight, June 30, 2006, all bars and restaurants in Colorado will become smoke free - with a few exceptions like casinos and a couple of cigar bars. As usual, the bar and restaurant owners say it will end up costing them their business because people won't come if they can't smoke.

As a former smoker, I say bunk! I hate eating someplace with a smoking section. There are very few places where you can combine a non-smoking section with a smoking section and the smoke won't drift. Your food tastes of cigarette smoke and your clothes and hair smell like an ash tray.

The same is true for houses where the owners smoke. It is almost impossible to get the cigarette smoke smell out of a house without taking out all the fabrics - carpets and drapes - and sometimes even the dry wall. All kinds of cures have been touted from air sanitizers to new carpeting. None of these will be effective if the smokers continue to smoke in the house. We have one piece of furniture that came from my parents home - who were both heavy smokers. It has been in our home for at least 10 years and you can still smell the smoke if you get close to that piece. Our next door neighbor is a heavy smoker and you can smell the smoke when you walk by her house. I mean you can smell it outside even though she only smokes inside her home.

In Colorado the large majority of people don't smoke. They don't want to purchase a home that smells like smoke. And with so many homes on the market right now, they have plenty to choose from. If you are a smoker and want to sell your home you should replace the carpet, paint the walls, clean the drapes and any furniture and then limit your smoking to the outside.

It still might not sell to a non-smoker, but at least you've given it a shot.

8:07 PM - Jun. 30, 2006 - comments {1} - post comment

re: If it smells, it won't sell
Columbus and most of our suburbs have had a smoking ban for over a year (?) now and it is wonderful. When we are traveling and go to restaurants we are surprised by what we take for granted in restaurants here now. There are local "smoke easies" here according to one of the weekly papers... bars that allow illegal smoking. A few years ago clients moving from California were amazed by how many people still smoked in Ohio. They were used to restaurants, etc. being non smoking. Great advice about smokers homes... "if it smells, it won't sell." I have had limited success with an air cleaner. Maureen
Maureen McCabe - 5:21 AM - Jul. 4, 2006