If you decide to bake the cookies, leave some on a plate with a note so they know they are welcome to take a cookie. Maybe leave a few paper plates and napkins so they can walk around with their cookies while looking.

Mmmm, I would love a few warm choc chip cookies right now.

Realize they might have little kids that possibly could get melted choc chips on stuff in your house.

Everyone knows this is a cheesy stage dressing tactic. And beyond that, a certain portion of buyers will have diet issues/gluten intolerance/health concerns, etc., that make the "enticing" smell of cookies a distraction. I'd skip it.

(Plus it will make your life much easier to have one less thing to worry about pre-showing.)

L

I frequently put a few drops of vanilla extract on foil in a warm oven. Similar effect. Not as fattening. (Besides, not everyone is keen on the smell of goat curry and oxtail!)

My sister always gets suspicious when there are odor-covering tricks going on.

You may thing "homey" and she's thinking "are they covering up mildew or dog pee".

I wouldn't...when I was looking at houses, if there was any sort of smell beyond a mild glade plug-in, I always suspected they were hiding something, especially if it came from the kitchen or basement.

And plus I wouldn't want to eat some random cookies on the table from a seller...I would feel totally weird about it LOL.

Although it is a very, very nice thought.

It's cheesy. If I want warm cookies, I'll go to a bakery.

As a buyer I wouldn't eat them but also wouldn't think they were suspiciously covering up another odor. I don't think that cookies would disguise the main offensive odors of smoking, pets or mildew. I think they only mask minor odors like last night's sauerkraut. But I don't think it's worth your time to do it for every showing. Spend the time instead going over the house another 15 minutes to make sure it's clean. The cheese factor of fresh baked cookies may be generational. Seasoned buyers see it as a cheesy ploy, but my twenty something son saw it as a sweet gesture when he was househunting and gobbled up the cookies

"Seasoned buyers see it as a cheesy ploy, but my twenty something son saw it as a sweet gesture when he was househunting and gobbled up the cookies"

Smiling here, because that's probably true. I get negative feelings about anything where it looks like somebody is 'trying too hard'. What turns me on when I go into somebody else's house is the smell of just plain old clean and fresh. Soap, Windex, Murphy's, furniture polish, wax, fresh paint, and especially fresh air.

I usually ran a dehumidifier in the unfinished basement the night before a showing. I had no funky odors or wet, but moist air brings out any smell and magnifies it. I also opened all the windows the morning of and ran the ceiling fans. Ran a moist mop over all the floors and gave each room a squeeze of Febreeze. Adjusted the stats from the 'hold when I'm gone' position to what would be comfortable for people, then closed it up and left.

Nothing sells a house like immaculate.

"Soap, Windex, Murphy's, furniture polish, wax, fresh paint"

yuck - you'd rather smell all those chemicals than fresh cookies?

Also, I'm not 20, but I don't think I have ever passed up a warm cookie. Ever.... Still, I think it is a bit over the top when people try to stage their house that way.

I'm laughing because as I was reading this, I was thinking that men would be thumbs up on the cookies, women, not so much. I'm still wondering if those minature candy bars that the previous owner left out with the "help yourself" sign did not make my better half so sure about this house...

You gotta laugh about the whole business. Buying/selling houses goes way past a simple business deal and you betcha no two people are on the same wavelength 100% of the time and we all have our own paradigms. The ironic thing is the house I was so careful to keep immaculate on a daily basis sold to a single man............with no cookies attached. And when I drive by there he always has his rugs out airing, boots neatly at the back door. He's more fastidious than I was.

I had a pot of spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove during a showing years ago. That person bought the house and later said the smell of the Italian sauce was wonderful and made her feel like it was a real home. I didnt do it intentionally, I was cooking and the realtor called asking if she could show the house within the next 1/2 hour.

I toured a house a few years back that went way overboard. They had candles in burning in the fireplace in August and mints on the table. I liked the house, but didn't like the neighborhood. I was suspicious about why they were trying so hard.

When we sold our last house, I kept it as clean as I could and mopped with the apple smelling cleaner every couple of days. I have some pretty pottery bowls that I filled with fresh peaches, plums and apples and put out on the counter. Fresh fruit smells awesome when it is ripe and at room temperature. Some might think bowls of fruit are out of place, but it isn't for my family. I encourage my kids to eat stuff like that instead of junk food.

If you can find any nice smelling outdoor flowers, I'd plant some right by the front door where they have to smell them when they walk in. I had some beautiful roses by my front door at a past house. Someone reported back that it set the tone for the house as they opened the locks to get in.

I'm about to sell my Mom's older house which needs lots of updating and many brokers who walked through it commented on how well it looked and how nice it smelled. I'd just finished painting almost the whole place myself - moldings too - and had polished the old wood floors with undiluted Murphys oil soap which smells soapy, lemony clean. After reading this thread, I think I'll skip the cookie idea which I'd been toying with doing and just go with clean smelling.