Yankee Candle Helps Make A House Smell Like a Home

I remember when I was house-hunting I would scour the weekend paper looking for Open Houses in neighborhoods I liked. Walking into someone else's house is always a bit strange and sometimes it can be difficult to imagine living there, but when the house smells like a home it can make all the difference in the world. The houses I really liked inevitably had a warm and comforting scent. Sometimes it was a baking aroma like someone just pulled a batch of cookies from the oven. Other times it was just a fresh, clean scent that made me feel like the house was well-maintained. Though the actual fragrance differed from home to home, I always found the source to be the same: a lit Yankee Candle® jar or Yankee Candle® Electric Air Freshener!

If you look at any "Top 10" list of tips for a successful real estate open house, you'll see that my experience isn't just happenstance. In fact when staging your house for a showing, giving it an appealing scent goes a long way in making it feel more like a home. This added element triggers happy thoughts and memories, ensuring that all senses are engaged in a warm and inviting way.

Yankee Candle products are available at all Yankee Candle Company retail stores, on our website, and at gift and home stores nationwide.

Yankee Candle Fragrance Boosts Your Scent Appeal!

I first realized the emotional appeal of Yankee Candle fragrances when I was house hunting. When my husband and I were newly married and living in a small apartment, one of our favorite pasttimes was scouring the neighborhood for real estate open houses. We loved visiting houses of all types and styles and dreaming about our "some day" home. In those days my favorite houses were the ones that not only looked pretty, but they smelled good too. There was something about a fragrant home that made it feel happy and loved. Inevitably I would find that the source of the scent was a lit Yankee® candle in the kitchen or living room. The warm, friendly aromas of Home Sweet Home® or MacIntosh would fill the air and the house would take on a completely different feel.

On their blog "Real Estate Advice, Answers, and More" Nothnagle Real Estate references the impact of a home's scent on its market value. They write, "there is a direct connection between smell and people's moods so light fragrances can help create 'scent appeal' when used properly in the home ... A light floral fragrance can put people in a more pleasant mood while citrus scents tend to have an energizing effect. Vanilla is often found to be comforting and relaxing." And they further recommend that, "a small reed diffuser in a bathroom can keep the room smelling clean while not overpowering the space."

It makes sense, doesn't it? To make a house a home, you add curb appeal to the outside so why not add scent appeal to the inside?