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Smokers' houses harder to sell
Wilmington (DE) News Journal ^ | September 26, 2003 | Maureen Milford

Posted on 09/30/2003 12:31:59 PM PDT by Gabz

Edited on 05/07/2004 6:01:30 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

As tobacco has become less socially acceptable and home buyers are more aware of indoor air quality, houses that reek of cigarette smoke are becoming a harder sell, experts report.

"It definitely is a major turnoff," said Michael Wilson, a real estate agent with Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors in Brandywine Hundred. "Buyers immediately think about what they'll have to do to eliminate the odor. It's a real drawback and a real negative."


(Excerpt) Read more at delawareonline.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Delaware
KEYWORDS: badattitudes; brownrottingteeth; cigarettes; leatherfaces; lies; niconatzies; pufflist; smoke; smokers; smoking; stink; stinkyclothes; stinkyhair; wasteofmoney; yellowfingers
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Comment #181 Removed by Moderator

To: PJ-Comix
Walls of homes that smokers live in do reek of tobacco long after they are gone.

Personal opinion, not fact.

If you don't like it fine, but others have no problem, even others don't notice, and there are some that actually like it.

I know real estate in Delaware, my statement about people jumping on the anti-smoker bandwagon to make a buck is the truth.

182 posted on 09/30/2003 5:26:33 PM PDT by Gabz (Smoke-gnatzies - small minds buzzing in your business - SWAT'EM)
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To: VRWC_minion
It seems your major problem is that you want the market to decide when it comes to restaurants but now when it comes to selling your home.

You sure know how to twist things, all Gabz said is that the claim in this article, doesn't hold water according to her own personal experience.

183 posted on 09/30/2003 5:26:36 PM PDT by Great Dane (You can smoke just about everywhere in Denmark.)
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Comment #184 Removed by Moderator

To: Motherbear
The point is whether or not the owner of the house told the TRUTH. One should have recourse for lies, right? Just like, "Any water damage?" Homeowners are expected to tell the truth, that's all.

Hey, if you can find someone who is willing to put it in the sales contract, maybe. But to try and sue someone until the house you bought no longer offends your nasal passages for something that isn't even in writing is rediculous. If someone sold you a has and it's stated that it is being sold as-is, tough. I wouldn't sell a house to anyone who wouldn't agree to an "as-is" sale after they've had it inspected.

185 posted on 09/30/2003 5:27:20 PM PDT by Orangedog (Soccer-Moms are the biggest threat to your freedoms and the republic !)
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To: CSM
You may be right, but that stink and filth proves exactly my point, and the point of this article. Which is, smokers homes are harder to sell and therefore sell for less money. You can defend your right to smoke in your home all day long, and that's fine and dandy, but you can't deny the fact that it affects your house in PHYSICAL ways, and those physical effects do drive down your homes value to future buyers.

No buyer, even one that smokes themselves considers walls weeping tar and other smoke related agents "clean". Smokers can object to the fact that I call this physical result of their smoking filth if they choose, but reality is that is exactly what it is viewed as. Looking at the wall that is pure white where the pictures were hanging, yet cream everywhere else, is considered dingy and filthy by buyers.

Don't have to like it, but its reality.
186 posted on 09/30/2003 5:29:07 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Motherbear
Have it inspected and make it part of the contract, in writing. But if it is stated in the contract that it is being sold as is, and you don't like the smell a few weeks later, you made your bed.
187 posted on 09/30/2003 5:31:36 PM PDT by Orangedog (Soccer-Moms are the biggest threat to your freedoms and the republic !)
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To: dhfnc
I am a non-smoker, but I have been in smokers homes that smell and look better than some non-smokers homes.

A normal human who understands that different people are different, regardless of their habits.

188 posted on 09/30/2003 5:31:45 PM PDT by Gabz (Smoke-gnatzies - small minds buzzing in your business - SWAT'EM)
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Comment #189 Removed by Moderator

To: jackbill
If someone doesn't want the water access and view from my place, they can go to hell.

This cigarette smoker on the Eastern Shore of Virginia salutes you!!!

Yes, most of what I have discussed on this thread deals with Delaware, but that was where I lived for the last 21 years and I happen to know a bit more about it than I know yet about where I have only lived for 5 months!!!!

190 posted on 09/30/2003 5:36:03 PM PDT by Gabz (Smoke-gnatzies - small minds buzzing in your business - SWAT'EM)
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To: Max McGarrity
No its not a link in the chain, its REALITY. You are a buyer are choosing your next home, you walk into a house that has smoke stained walls and smells of tobacco... like it or not that immediately drives down the price. Its not because the house is less healthy, its because the house is less CLEAN!

A buyer generally is not likely to make ,one of, if not the biggest financial decision of their lives and select a property that obviously needs attention. Some will, but those that will, will demand a lower cost for the work they know they will have to put into the property to make it pristine.

You cannot honestly believe your house is 79.9k and your neighbors house is the exact same model, and its 79.9k. Your neighbors house does not smell like smoke, and does not have that tell tell creame that were at one time white walls... guess whose house sells and which one doesn't far more often than not? The one with the pretty white walls that doesn't smell! The same is true if the house would smell like dog urine or cat litter.

This is factual reality folks... cleanliness is a huge factor in selling a home. A buyer looking at a blank wall with white spots where the pictures were, but tan everywhere else is going to be at a marked disadvantage.

VERY few people wants to spend more money than they ever have before in their lives on something that they know going in will need more work.. and if they do, they won't pay top dollar for it.

Home buyers buy on EMOTION far more than logic... pretending that cleanliness or even the perception of cleanliness does not affect them is simply denial of reality.
191 posted on 09/30/2003 5:36:39 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Gabz
Nonesense. I smoke and nobody can tell when they come in my house. Boil a little orange peel and cinnamon on the stove from time to time and use a little Fabreeze.
192 posted on 09/30/2003 5:36:50 PM PDT by McGavin999
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To: Gabz
You are very welcome. It was a rare find. I guess the mainstream press won't publish it so he has to do his own advertising. The only other link I could find to the title was at Forces.org. The silence out there in the establishment is amazing. Fascism is a scary thing. I guess we just have to go through it every half century or so. Hope people are starting to recognize it for what it is. Go Freepers...
193 posted on 09/30/2003 5:38:35 PM PDT by dar29oh
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To: Gabz
I can't think of a better aroma...a cigarette burning, taters cooking over a gas stove in an old musty house.
194 posted on 09/30/2003 5:39:25 PM PDT by BoozeHag
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To: NCLaw441
But I confess that the smoking allure has never attracted me (except for my perverted habit of engrossing watching, from a distance, attractive female smokers as they smoke.... I do have ONE vice.....)

Oh yea??? heh!


195 posted on 09/30/2003 5:39:27 PM PDT by SheLion (Curiosity killed the cat BUT satisfaction brought her back!!!)
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To: dhfnc; SheLion
Exactly - and how about the people that don't train their pets?

ACCK!!! I'm going nuts doing just that with a new puppy. She always seems to have an "accident" when I'm not looking. And always on the only carpet in the entire house.

OTOH, how would I know if she did or didn't, I'm a smoker and according to all the so-called "experts" I have no sense of smell so I shouldn't be able to tell if the puppy had an accident or not?

Puppies, like kids have accidents, as long as you are aware and take care of it immediatley it is not a problem - vinegar is my best friend right now!!!!

196 posted on 09/30/2003 5:42:00 PM PDT by Gabz (Smoke-gnatzies - small minds buzzing in your business - SWAT'EM)
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To: Gabz
I've seen democrats and homosexuals get better treatment on threads here than the smokers have been treated on this thread today.

Very sad, isn't it? The hate and disrespect they spew towards decent AMERICAN adults who choose to smoke a legal commodity.

It's sad that some in Free Republic think that their chit don't stink just because they do not smoke. Well, I am thankful I do not have to meet these people in real life. I surely do not EVER want to be around them. They disgust me just about as much as DAVIS and I don't even live in KOOKIFORNIA. amen!

197 posted on 09/30/2003 5:42:00 PM PDT by SheLion (Curiosity killed the cat BUT satisfaction brought her back!!!)
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To: HamiltonJay
HamiltonJay states, "If you smoke in your house, you are driving down your property value on resale, its just a pure and simple fact."

Why on resale? If that's true, then smokers should get automatic devaluations on their assessments from like properties inhabited by non-smokers since you say their property values are less, and therefore smokers should be paying less property taxes. However, I highly doubt that dog would hunt at the assessor's office. This article is just another tactic of the anti-smoker community to try to further dehumanize smokers by inciting normal, average people to believe this malarky, since the message is that if smokers' houses really do sell for less, then that would pull down all valuations within the neighborhood because houses are normally valued on like sales. I never once saw a comparative market appraisal list that house A was owned by a smoker therefore the house was devalued over house B which is owned by a non-smoker. Think about it.

The truth about what drives the price of real estate sales is location, location, and location... period. The same exact style house on two sides of the street may bring different prices, just because of the location, views, and curb appeal.

HamiltonJay also says, "There is no Lie about the stink and filth that a house of a smoker has versus a non smoker. I've had to seal repaint, and cleanup and replace enough carpet in homes and apartments of habitual smokers..."

While I'm fairly certain you are sincere, I do think that you make it sound like all smokers are pigs and the smoke smell is damn near impossible to get out. In reality, you just had bad tenants who didn't clean responsibly. The fact is that both the smoking and non-smoking communities have their fair share of slobs, especially as renters, and home-owners who overextend so as not being able able to keep up with simple, standard maintenance. The statement you made stated correctly would be "There is no Lie about the stink and filth of a bad tenant compared to a good conscientious tenant", not necessarily smoker vs non-smoker. As I see it, renters just don't have pride in ownership, and many (not all) have no respect at all for others' property. I used to move quite a bit (every year or two) and have rented at least a dozen different houses over the years. Never once was I refused my security deposit being returned because of these excessive cleanup costs which you list. In fact, all houses I left were given a good scrubbing before I moved out. I'm sure that not a single landlord of mine ever had more cleanup costs from me than the typical non-smoking tenant and they all may have even had less. Furthermore, as some have stated that the smoke permeates all wood all wallboard, then every house that had even the smallest of house fires should be a total loss due to smoke and soot permeation throughout the house. I once bought a house that even had a previous kitchen fire. A little repair work and paint and no one with the sharpest of olfactory senses could have told the difference. I sure didn't. In fact, I lived in it for six years before doing a little remodeling and finding the remnants of the fire behind a wall.

All this article does is try to influence minds of normal people bombarded with never-ending subliminal and some not so subliminal messages as illustrated by Joe Bob Brigg's article Non Fumar? Comprende and reinforce the value system of those politically correct lemmings to love to follow the anti-smoker pied-piper in demonizing 1/4 of the population. Before you get mad thinking I'm throwing an ad hom at you, I do place you in the ranks of the former.

198 posted on 09/30/2003 5:43:17 PM PDT by lockjaw02 ("The phenomenon of corruption is like the garbage. It has to be removed daily." -Ignacio)
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To: HamiltonJay
My house is over a hundred years old. How many people lived here that smoked? Care to take a guess? And it's a beautiful BIG farm home. And I'm not about to sell, so I sure don't have to worry about any prudes coming in to look at it.
199 posted on 09/30/2003 5:43:57 PM PDT by SheLion (Curiosity killed the cat BUT satisfaction brought her back!!!)
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To: Vladivostok
The MADD weapon goes like this: "Oh if you're agin us, you're for death, mayhem and mangled children on the roads"

And the anti-smoker mantra sounds very similar. But it's dead children due to horrible diseases that are ONLY caused by smoking.

It's obvious you know the routine, so I won't bother to waste the bandwidth!!!

200 posted on 09/30/2003 5:44:59 PM PDT by Gabz (Smoke-gnatzies - small minds buzzing in your business - SWAT'EM)
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