Smokers' houses harder to sell

Wilmington (DE) News Journal ^ | September 26, 2003 | Maureen Milford

[Gabz]

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."

[HamiltonJay]

Judith,

Tell ya what, next time I start a rehab on a smokers paradise, you come on down, I'll be happy to show you exactly what I'm talking about.

Anytime you're in the area just let me know, if I don't have one on deck I know a few dozen others, I'm sure someone will have one going.

[lockjaw02]

HamiltonJay squeals in post 266, "I can also just as easily get a house for 20-30-40-50 or even 60% less than its appraised value but that doesn't mean its only worth 40% of its appraised value against my neighbors home... if it did, then ever time I bought a house I'd be dropping property values... which isn't the case, in fact I usually end up raising values when I go in and buy a property."

Jeez, gotta love it when someone shoots their own argument in the foot.

Remember this which you wrote a few short moments ago in post 237, "Your using myth to make argument. Assessments have nothing to do with home values. Assessments like appraisals are just what someone subjectively believes a property would sell for. The only thing that determines the true value of a property is when it sells, everything else is pure conjecture."

Well, which is it?!?

[Gabz]

Anybody notice that this thread started with an article posted in a delaware rag?

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

A point I have been trying to make since I posted the bloody article.

As far as I can tell I am the only one on this thread that has any experience with real estate in Delaware and with this particular Delaware rag.

This rag has such an anti-smoker stand that they would willing do an interview with bin laden or hussein and not turn them into to authorities if they were willing to speak against smokers.

Conservatives in Delaware will know exactly what I am saying, (most left-wingers know it too) but outside the state (except those like me who got smart and got out) will not have a clue.

[lockjaw02]

Anytime, Max.

[HamiltonJay]

Come on over Judity Anne, any time, I'll gladly show you and your realtor friend exactly what I am talking about. Just got finished with my brothers house 2 weeks ago, and his house wasn't even that bad. Still took 2 coats fo primer and 3 coats of Semi Gloss to get the walls to where you couldn't tell where the previous owner hung his pictures from the nicotine stains....

So anytime you are ready, just just come for a visit.

[VermiciousKnid]

I've seen dusty houses, messy houses, and smelly houses. I've seen houses so clean you could perform a surgical procedure in them. I've seen houses where termites have destroyed the underlying woodwork. Since I grew up in a neighborhood where the houses are typically over 100 years old, I've seen houses that have lead pipes, lead paint, and multiple WORKING fireplaces in which literally thousands of fires have burned. I've seen houses that use wood stoves for heat. I've seen them with COAL stoves, too.

But

I have never seen a house such as you describe.

Honestly...SIX COATS of paint/primer? What the hell happened in that house? The Amityville Horror?

[Judith Anne]

Anytime you're in the area just let me know, if I don't have one on deck I know a few dozen others, I'm sure someone will have one going.

No thanks. I don't hang out with nazis. Or crazy people.

[Max McGarrity]

Ridiculous. But you have every right to your own stupidity.

[lockjaw02]

Rebelbase recklessly retorts, "The Nico Brown-Shirts descend upon these threads like flies on sh_t."

Well, if my being a Nico Brown-Shirt classifies me as a fly, then you can easily deduce what you are.

[TheWriterInTexas]

When I was a renter, I never had a problem with my landlords because of my smoking. In fact, all of my landlords praised my maintenance of their properties, because they were CLEANER when I left than they were when I moved in.

I smoke, on average, a pack a day.

When we rented the top half of a mother/daughter house, I had to toss out urine stained carpets and rebuild the molding around the shower because the previous occupants would throw parties, vomit/urinate where ever, and let the show run for hours.

We moved out when the sold the house, which sold only 45 days after it hit the market.

We moved into an apartment in Suffolk County, where I preceeded to bleach the living heck out of everything, scrubbing down the walls, the ceiling, and even pulling down the blinds and soaking/scrubbing them till they were white again. When a building inspector came into our apartment complex and checked each unit, the inspector was aghast. She said, and I quote, "This is the cleanest apartment I've ever seen." We had two cats, too, but NOT ONE PERSON even knew it until they came out from under the bed.

My neighbors used to joke that all I did was clean. I spent 12 to 16 hours every week doing nothing but housework, from the ceiling vents and fans to the baseboards, and everything in between. When we considered moving in 2001, a relator came to my home, took one quick look around, pronounced it "immaculate" and assured me she could sell it within a week (for a whole lot more than what we thought it was worth).

Why? Because it was "pristine."

I know non-smokers whose homes are a shambles, pet owners whose homes stink like wet, dirty dogs, and homes that have a "funky" mildew smell to them. If you don't deep clean (not just surface clean, but deep down nitty gritty clean) every week, any home will have a "smell" to it eventually.

Smoker, or not.

[HamiltonJay]

Lockjaw,

What do you think is diametrically opposed? The fact that I say that Appraisals don't set value? Certainly nothing I said countered that... or is it the fact that you can't believe I can buy a property far below its appraised cost and then turn around and sell it for more than appraised cost?

I suppose you think because I paid 40% of appraisal that the value of the property is 40% of appraisal... well I suppose technically you could argue it is, as that is what the transaction was for... but you think the buyer I sell it to will pay 40% of appraised price? Hell no.

Its a concept called instant equity, I'm sorry if you can't grasp the fact that you can buy a commodity for less than another is willing to pay for it.

To that seller on that day, that property was only worth 40% of the appraised value... because that's what he took for it, does that mean I am going to sell it for that? No. The minute the property changed hands its value position changed... why? Simple, he needed it sold and would sell for 40% for whatever reason... once the deed changes hands however, I am now the owner, and it won't be leaving my hands for that price.

Just because that seller couldn't sell it for say 100k, and took 40k, doesn't mean I won't find a buyer for 100 or even 110k, or maybe I feel like being nice and let it go for 90k. And my sale price won't have squat to do with an appraisal value either, just like my purchase price didn't.

If you can't keep up, I can suggest some very well written books on the topic.

[Gabz]

There are obviously exceptions, but by in large, you can tell the minute you walk in the door, if not before (just like you can tell if they owned a pet etc).

I seriously doubt you would have gone on the way you have on this thread had the article been about pet owners.

I seriously doubt you would have referred to the STENCH and FILTH of pet owners the way you have about smokers.

Get over yourself. So you're a real estate mogul, big whoop - my experience is people in real estate are as, if not even more, corrupt than people in politics. And those in both are the worst. That's REALITY.

You don't like it, too bad.

[CajunConservative]

Some people also have a better sense of smell than others. One thing I know, is that no smoker realizes how smelly the stuff is until he quits. I have probably a dozen exsmokers in my family, and none could smell it very much before they quit.

That's how it was for me. I never could smell cigarette smoke before and when I smoked but ever since I quit I can smell it a mile away.

I am in the process of cleaning my dad's house I just inherited and there is nicotine everywhere. He kept it clean had a cleaning lady come in and washed down the walls monthly but 20 years of several smoking occupants has taken it's toll.

I am not an anti smoker, but just sharing my experience.

[Max McGarrity]

piIts like trying to explain an what ugly is to a blind person.

I'd just read that blind person your posts here, minnie.

[Max McGarrity]

piIts like trying to explain an what ugly is to a blind person.

I'd just read that blind person your posts here, minnie.

[auggy]

"They scrubed the doors in the house numerous times to get all the black stuff off."

If, it was black, it wasn't cigarette smoke. At least, I have never seen a black residue caused by cigarettes.

Cigarettes leave a dirty yellow residue. It is nasty. We moved into this house 10 years ago. We vowed to never smoke in the house, just the garage. I am right now in the process of painting the inside of the garage. It is a dingy yellowed white.

[Gabz]

Doesn't anybody else like COLOR?

'Green tomato' 'bougainvillea' 'cilantro' 'banana' 'bubble gum' are the ones I can think of off the top of my head!!!! there is a purple I can't think of the name of, and another green.

And those are only the colors for the kitchen, bathroom and my daughter's room!!!! I haven't decided yet on the family room, my room or the living room and dining room!!!

I love color!!!!!!!!

My kitchen is going to be a chili pepper - yellow, green and red. The outside of the house will be more "beachy" looking. The trim is a green and the rest will be a sand. The inside is basically going to be desert meets beach in color combinations and decor!!!

I love color!!!! The more the better!!!

[HamiltonJay]

Nope, typical house I rehab is right around 100 years old, some are only 50, oldest so far was about 130.

I have been in houses where the dog crap was literally 3 feet tall piles. I have been in houses where literally NOTHING and I do mean NOTHING had been done to the house in over 50 years. I have been in homes where they had to be smoking easily 5-7 packs a day in them for years... where the walls are literally a tan/beige and honestly if you didn't know better would think that's the color they were painted, until you pull down a picture and find nice antique white square behind them. I have watched walls suck up coat after coat of primer and paint with little effect and I am not talking cheap no name paint either, I'm talking the ultra hide brand names.

Believe me, before I started fixing up houses I didn't know houses like this existed, let alone were occupied. I am telling you a not uncommon smokers house in this area, in my experience, you are looking at MIMIMAL of 5 coats to get the walls where you can no longer make out where the pictures used to be... 2 primer + 3 paint. In some of the worst I have done, its well above that.

This is a market where people will literally live their entire lives in a house... just talked to soemone the other day, their aunt had lived in the house since she was 14 years old, she just died in her 80s.. her parents bought the house, and when they passed she just kept living there.... and that is NOT an uncommon story here. Where the national average home turnover may be something like 2.8 years... here in this town the average is way way higher.

Finding homes with the same owner for 20-30-40 and 50 years is not unheard of.

My mother bougth her home it was in that condition, old woman living there smoker, took 5 coats to get walls a clean white... my brother bought his house, again 5 coats to get the homes white, and neither of these were incredibly old homes, they were both build in the 50s time frame. And neither of them were ones I'd classify as "bad" in my experience.

My experience is if you get a serious smokers house, expect 4-5 coats to get it blended clean... if its really bad, even more. NEVER have I been able to walk into a smokers home and slap 1-2 coats and get a clean wall, ever.

[Max McGarrity]

LOL! Yes!! We have mushroom cap, deep sage, merlow, and something dark that goes well with the shroom cap but I've forgotten its name. And what Hamilton Jaybird and his cronies don't understand at all is that there IS no home just like this one so there's absolutely no way to make such a judgement. But I can safely guarantee that, should we ever sell, we'll get our asking price, whatever it is.

[Gabz]

however you definately live in la la land if you think buyers won't penalize a house that smells or is visibly unclean.

I have yet to see anyone on this thread say any such thing, yet you keep claiming such. What is wrong with you?