Tips for attracting home buyers with good scents

Can a potential buyer be compelled to make a big purchase if a pleasant background fragrance appeals to their senses and breaks down their defenses? Real estate agents and home sellers these days are widely banking on it.

Ambient fragrancing started to trickle into the real estate market years ago, with savvy real estate agents baking cookies or cinnamon rolls in the homes they were showing to create a comforting, deliciously scented atmosphere meant to entice buyers. If you’re trying to sell a home in today’s challenging real estate market, you may have tried this technique. However, with the excess of available homes, you may need to think a bit more creatively to make your home stand out.

The essential oils that are used in the practice of aromatherapy offer a more practical and potent way to use scent marketing to move buyers to feel good about a property. Using even tiny amounts of familiar, tempting aromas like cinnamon, clove, vanilla and orange, can fill a whole house with pleasant ambient fragrance. An added bonus is that essential oils are all natural and distilled from plants. They are less likely to elicit the kind of adverse reactions that harsh synthetic fragrances do.

Aromatherapy expert Tom Havran has several ideas to help you sell your home. He crafts blends for Aura Cacia. A passionate expert on the properties of essential oils, he has been crafting essential oil blends for 15 years.

His first suggestion is an easy and sleek way to create a warm, comforting atmosphere that can help put potential property buyers at ease.

Vanilla amber aroma crystals. Havran recommends using vanilla essential oil blended with jojoba for this first recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup coarse-grained, chunky sea salt
1 teaspoon jojoba or grapeseed oil (just enough to make the salts glisten and gleam)
25 drops vanilla precious essential oil
10 drops lavender essential oil
10 drops sweet orange essential oil

Directions: Mix salt and oils, pour into a decorative dish or bowl and set out on a table. Placing the crystals in a warm sunny window or near a heat register will help diffuse the delicious aroma throughout the room. Stir in additional essential oils to boost the scent as needed.

Fresh flowers and bergamot vacuum powder. This light and transparent floral/citrus scent will create a cheerful, friendly and clean atmosphere to impress visitors. Since you need to vacuum before each property showing anyway, this is a great way to turn the chore into a smart real estate marketing move.

Ingredients:
1 cup baking soda
35 drops bergamot orange essential oil
5 drops ylang ylang or neroli (orange flower) essential oil

Directions: Mix baking soda and essential oils in a canister and lightly sprinkle over carpets, then vacuum.

Because essential oils are so concentrated, a little goes a long way. An initial investment in a small 1/2-ounce bottle of oil will provide you with enough applications to conduct dozens of open houses.

Using essential oils to craft your own bit of psychological scent marketing might provide a good return on a small investment. Aromatherapy may give you that much-needed unique and surprising edge on the competition.

Photo courtesy of ARAcontent