Your home should smell good. When this comes to selling the house, it means that there should be no noticeable odors. Make careful attempts to get rid of the following smells:

Pet odors
Stale cooking/food smells
Cigarette smoke

Smell makes an enormous impact on people when they enter a home. Furthermore, while smokers and pet owners may not even notice the smells in their home - having become quite accustomed to them - they may be an overwhelming turn-off for potential buyers.

In this case, have a non-smoking, non-pet owning friend come over to perform a sniff test.

While it used to be recommended that you bake bread or steam cinnamon potpourri before a potential buyer is to come through, it's no longer recommended. The same goes for spray air fresheners.

If you insist upon adding a scent to your home, make it a very - repeat, very - lightly scented candle, or scented oil. However, it's better not to scent the home at all.

The best way to get rid of scent problems in a home isn't to cover them up, but instead, it's to remove them at the source. Recommended techniques for accomplishing this include:

Scrubbing the house
Having the air vents cleaned
Replacing old, smelly carpeting
Smoking outdoors