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If you are a smoker, it’s possible that your property will have damage from smoking, such as residues in the furniture and unpleasant odours that can linger for years. Although this type of damage can make it more challenging to sell a house or flat, this guide explains how it’s still possible to hopefully get a competitive and speedy offer when trying to sell your home.
- Which properties are considered smoker’s homes?
- How smoking indoors can affect the sale of a property
- Are you required to tell buyers that you smoke in your home?
- Deciding whether to clean a smoker’s home before selling
- Your four options for selling a smoker’s house or flat
- Frequently asked questions about selling a smoker’s home
Which properties are considered smoker’s homes?
If you’re a smoker who enjoys the occasional, or even frequent, cigarette, pipe or cigar insider your freehold or leasehold home, then this is considered to be a smoker’s property.
This type of house or flat is one where the smell from smoking has started to seep into the home and linger, and it can affect almost every aspect of the property ranging from the carpets to the cupboards and from the window ledges to the walls. As this guide will explain in further detail, a smoker’s home can in some cases be harder to sell than properties where the owner has never smoked indoors, because of the smell that smoking leaves behind.
You own a freehold smoker’s home if you possess the building and the land on which it was constructed outright, whereas you own a leasehold smoker’s home if you own the property for a set number of years and pay the freeholder an annual ground rent whilst you live there.
Whichever type of home you own, it’s important to know the reasons why someone might be wary about buying a smoker’s property – including concerns they might have about potential negative health impacts from being exposed to “third-hand” smoke through the residues that are left behind in a home after you smoke, as the website Medical News Today explains.
Don’t be concerned that you will never be able to find someone to purchase your smoker’s home, because even if you attempt to sell the property “as is” without taking steps to clean up the smell and other problems caused by the smoke, there are still options to find a buyer.
Whatever the reason for wanting to sell you house or flat – from needing to relocate to another country for work through to trying to raise funds for your retirement – this guide will walk you through the hurdles involved with selling a smoker’s home, and how to attract buyers.
How smoking indoors can affect the sale of a property
Smoking cigarettes or other similar products indoors can cause damage to your freehold or leasehold home in several ways, and they can be off-putting to potential buyers.
Perhaps the most noticeable negative impact that smoking can have is the smell that is left behind from cigarettes, which can be stale, prominent and unpleasant to many people. This type of odour can build up in properties, particularly those owned by heavy smokers, and even if you’re used to the smell, it can be very pungent and unwelcoming to any visitors.
If you’re hosting viewings at your home when trying to sell it, where prospective buyers get to tour the property, the smell from smoke can be enough to make some people lose interest.
One estimate suggests that smoking indoors can reduce the value of a property by about 29 percent compared to a non-smoker’s home, according to the website Business Mondays.
In addition to the foul odour that smoking can leave behind inside a property, cigarette and cigar smoke also has the potential to leave a yellowish stain on furniture and other furnishings. This unsightly residue can be visually very unappealing to potential buyers, and they might find it too distracting to continue considering making an offer to purchase your flat or house.
Yet another potential concern about a smoker’s home is that you might have accidentally burned furniture, for example dropping a lit cigarette on a wooden floor, and this will have left behind a mark that would need to be repaired. If there are multiple burn marks throughout your property as a result of you smoking, this can make your home harder to sell.
Are you required to tell buyers that you smoke in your home?
During the selling process, as the owner you will be required to be upfront with potential buyers about a vast number of issues. You must disclose to them a long list of elements about your property, including any structural issues or disputes with neighbours, as the real estate company Chancellors explains.
Concealing some types of information can be unlawful and you could face legal consequences if you try to sell your home without disclosing a known problem such as subsidence.
However, the fact that you smoke indoors is not typically considered something that must be disclosed on formal property selling forms and other paperwork. But if a potential buyer comes to your home, they will likely notice the smell or potential visible damage from the smoking.
And if someone is at your property on a viewing and asks whether you smoke in the property, you should always answer such questions honestly. It’s only fair to give prospective buyers the right to make a fully informed decision about whether or not to make an offer on your home.
Deciding whether to clean a smoker’s home before selling
Depending on the extent of the odour and visible staining in your smoker’s home, it’s possible that some people might consider the property to be unsellable. And some homeowners might consider taking steps to treat the smoke damage before attempting to sell their properties.
You’ll have to look at your budget for selling your property, as well as your preferred timeline for how quickly you would like to sell the house or flat, to decide whether you have the ability and willingness to pursue some actions that might help to tackle the smoke before selling.
It is possible to treat smoke-stained walls and to take potentially low-cost steps to clean up a smoker’s home to either significantly reduce or eliminate the smell and visible damage, as the website Dulux Decorator Centre notes. There are certain steps you can take to treat almost any type of smoke stain, including treatments available for different types of furniture.
Some of these actions should be affordable and easy for you to do without any help, but if the smoke odours or staining are widespread at your property then it might be necessary to pay for professional cleaners who can ventilate the home and hopefully fix the problem. Yet this could be a very lengthy and expensive step to take, so it won’t work for everybody.
If you were to fully remediate any damage left behind from smoke, this would remove the issue as a negative problem affecting the sale of your home and it therefore will no longer be a factor that might drive some buyers away. People could lose interest in your smoker’s home because they may worry about how much time and funds it would cost them to fix the issue as the new owner of the property – but tackling the problem in advance eliminates this scenario.
However, many homeowners simply will not have the time, money or effort available in order to pursue this type of cleanup work before they attempt to sell their property.
Don’t be discouraged if you need to sell your smoker’s home "as is" without fixing the issue, because there are still options available that could result in your receiving a fair and fast offer on your property. The next section of this guide offers more specifics on these selling options, including the benefits of selling to a quick property buyer like LDN Properties, because these companies are experts at buying "as is" homes – including smoker’s properties.
Your four options for selling a smoker’s house or flat
If you are ready to seek a buyer for your smoker’s home in its current state, you will then need to make a decision on the method you would like to use for trying to find a buyer.
Generally your choices are among selling to a quick home buyer, selling on your own, selling with an estate agent or selling with an auctioneer. There are distinct advantages associated with some of the options, for example if you use a quick home buyer then you’ll get a speedy sale without having to pay any commission. Other options have noticeable disadvantages, such as having to pay costly fees when selling your home via an estate agent or auctioneer.
In order to assist you with identifying the best selling method for your unique situation, write down your main aims with selling, including how fast you would like to find a buyer, how much commission, if any, you are willing to pay, and your preferred selling price. Then compare these details against the specifics of the four selling methods below, and this should help you to find the approach to finding a buyer that will best pair with your own priorities when selling.
Selling to a quick home buyer
Quick home buyers are companies such as LDN Properties, founded in 2003, that make fast and fair offers to purchase almost any type of freehold or leasehold home.
They are called quick buyers because they have the funds available upfront to immediately purchase properties, without having to wait for weeks or months to initially get approved for a mortgage that would cover the cost of buying the home. This reduces the typical timeline when selling to a quick buyer to just a few weeks, and that includes exchanging contracts and paying you the sale proceeds, making it often the speediest option for selling any property.
A further benefit of selling to a legitimate quick buyer is that they will not charge you any commission, so you’ll get the full sale proceeds whilst also keeping your expenses low. But if you sell via an estate agent or auctioneer then this will increase your overall selling costs because you will have to pay them commission that will be taken out of the sale proceeds.
Quick home buyers also make competitive offers for properties regardless of their age, condition, location, shape or size – including smoker’s homes and many other types. That means they won’t steeply discount the offer they make just because it’s a smoker’s home.
LDN Properties, for example, has made speedy and fair offers to buy not just smoker’s properties but also vandalised houses, flats with cladding, eco homes, mundic properties, homes with spray foam insulation, properties that have storm damage, houses that are located by busy traffic junctions, lock-up garages, plots of land, homes near mobile phone masts, flats that have very short lease agreements remaining, and many other varied selling situations.
Selling on your own
The second option for selling your home is doing so on your own, which means you will have to handle every step of the process, which can require a lot of work and be very stressful.
It starts with creating a listing that features photographs of the interior and exterior of your home, and describes its main elements, such as how many bedrooms it has. Then you’ll have to pay to advertise this listing, and organise viewings to give potential buyers a tour of the home. Finally, you will have to hear offers from buyers and hopefully take one to completion.
This is often not work that you can simply do in your spare time and for that reason it’s not recommended to pursue this selling method unless you have experience with selling a smoker’s home, or have a suitably qualified friend or family member willing to help you for free. Otherwise you risk a very slow selling process and your home could be on the market for over a year.
The only clear benefit of selling without any assistance is that you won’t have to pay a third party like an auctioneer or estate agent any commission. But this cost saving could be wiped out by the money that you’ll have to spend on advertising your listing and other steps.
Instead, consider selling your home to a quick property buyer such as LDN Properties. These companies make fast and fair offers to buy almost any type of home, including smoker’s houses or flats, and they can complete the purchasing process in just a handful of weeks. But they have the additional benefit of never charging you any fees, so you will not only achieve your goal of not paying any commission, but you’ll also get a much swifter sale then selling on your own.
Selling with an estate agent
A third way to sell your smoker’s home is with an estate agent, and this will mean minimal effort on your part because the estate agent will handle most of the work, including creating a listing of for the property, organising viewings, and fielding offers from serious potential buyers.
But estate agents will require that you pay them commission for doing all of this work, and it’s typically charged at a percentage of your property’s final sale price. This will increase your overall selling costs because the fee will be subtracted immediately from the sale proceeds, so if you want to lower your selling expenses then you might want to consider another option such as selling your home to a zero-fee quick buying company.
Selling via an estate agent can also take a very long time, and you should not be surprised if your property remains on the market for more than a year before receiving a serious offer. And even if someone does make an offer, there’s always the risk that they rescind the offer and the sale falls apart. Potential buyers can do this right up until just before contracts are exchanged, and this will force you to start over with seeking a buyer, making the process even longer.
Also note that some estate agents might have never tried to sell a smoker’s home before, which means that they could find it difficult to know how to attract interest in your property. You should ask individual estate agents whether they have successfully sold a smoker’s house or flat before, and avoid using those companies that do not have this kind of experience.
A few estate agents might also try to trick you by quoting a very generous estimated sale price for your home, despite them knowing secretly that it will only sell much at a much lower price. They do this to entice you to sell via their company so that they can profit from the commission they’ll get to charge you if your property sells. You can avoid falling for this trick by asking several estate agents for free quotes on your home’s potential sale price, then looking on property sales websites and writing down the price of houses or flats similar to yours. Then calculate an average of all these prices and it should give you a much more accurate of the likely sale price of your property compared to just getting quotes from estate agents.
Selling with an auctioneer
The fourth option for selling your home is doing so through an auctioneer, where people can place bids of ever-increasing value on your smoker’s property. Just be prepared for an outcome where nobody places a bid on your home, which means that it does not sell, and you’ll then have to begin again with trying to find a buyer, delaying the process even further.
This method of selling does reduce your workload, because the auctioneer will take care of most of the steps involved such as creating and advertising a listing for your home and hosting the auction. But this can be a slow process, because there will be a wait of many weeks or months between listing your home for sale and when the auction happens. And then if your home does sell then the buyer will usually have about 28 days to complete their required steps such as signing all of their legal paperwork and other required actions to finish the purchase.
Auctioneers will also charge you commission as a percentage of your home’s final sale price, and this will be taken out of the eventual sale proceeds, which will to your total selling expenses. If you would like to lower your costs when selling your smoker’s home, you might want to consider a zero-fee option such as selling to a quick buyer.
It’s possible that some auctioneers might be willing to either lower their rate of commission or make the winning high bidder pay some of your expenses, so you should inquire with individual companies about whether this outcome might be a possibility when selling your home.
Also note that some auctioneers might have zero experience with successfully selling a smoker’s house or flat, and this indicates that they may find it difficult to get auction attendees interested in making a bid on your property. You should ask auctioneers if they have sold a smoker’s home before and avoid selling with those companies that have not done so.
Top queries and answers about selling a smoker’s property
Homeowners thinking of selling their home fast sometimes have questions for us, ranging from the condition of the property before selling through to selling a house or flat with no boiler. Here are some of the top questions we’re asked about selling a smoker’s home:
Your top questions when selling a smoker’s property
These are freehold or leasehold houses, flats or other types of properties where the owner is a regular smoker. Over an extended period of time, smoke from cigarettes, cigars and similar products can affect the odours in a property, and also leave stains on the furniture. Some people also have concerns about health threats from residue left behind by smoking.
Many potential buyers are likely to lose interest in a smoker’s property because of any or all of the problems that can result, such as staining of floors and walls, bad odour and even health problems linked to the smoking residue.
There are many factors that you must disclose to a potential buyer as part of the selling process, for example whether your home has any significant structural problems. You do not have to disclose that you are a smoker on any property disclosure forms, but the smell and stains may make it obvious to people who see your home that it is a smoker’s house or flat.
You could potentially spend money on treating any damage caused from smoking in your home, such as removing stains or ventilating the property to get rid of the odours. However, there are many homeowners who will not have the effort, time or funds available to do such work, and the good news is that there are still options to sell a smoker’s home as is without any repairs.
Your speediest option will usually be getting in touch with a quick home buyer like LDN Properties, because these companies have extensive experience with buying smoker’s homes, and they can complete the entire process in just a few weeks. By contrast, selling on your own or through an auctioneer or estate agent can take at least several months or longer.
If you try to sell your smoker’s house or flat using an auctioneer or estate agent then you will have to pay them commission, and this will increase your selling expenses because the fee will be taken out of the final proceeds right away. But if you try to sell your home without any assistance or sell to an honest quick buying company then you won’t pay any commission.
You should ask individual quick buyers if they are registered with The Property Ombudsman (TPO), which publishes regulations that all members must follow and which are designed to prevent homeowners falling for scams in the quick buying industry. You can typically trust companies that are TPO members, like LDN Properties, whereas non-members perhaps less so.
