Pee You Your Home Stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Homebuyers don't want houses that stink. Sellers must identify and remediate odors that make prospective purchasers hold their noses and run for the exits. Unfortunately, it's not always easy for sellers to identify familiar smells that might be problematic. There is no odor meter people get used to the odor of their house and may not notice that something is not pleasant

Outside sniffers
The best way to find out whether a house smells OK is to ask someone who doesn't live there to come inside and give an opinion. The obvious "someone" would be the real-estate broker hired to sell the home. But not all brokers will point out that a house smells bad, even if they're willing to offer other helpful suggestions.
Some agents are not outspoken about odor issues, instead they rely on other agents who bring buyers to see the property to break the bad news. That way, the message gets delivered with less risk to their cordial relationship with the sellers.

Pet odors
The two most common sources of difficult and offensive odors are pets and cigarettes, neither of which, is easy to remediate. The point might seem obvious, but the first line of defense in any smelly situation is to remove the source of the problem, even if that means a beloved pet must board elsewhere for a while.
It's not the nicest thing to do but you have to present the question to them "would you buy a house that smells like a dog or cat if you don't have one?" Cat urine, among the worst of the bad odors, can seep into carpet fibers, carpet padding, concrete and wood floors, upholstery fabrics, and furniture cushions and pillows.
Oftentimes you have to remove the carpet, remove the pad and seal the floor, and then replace the carpet and the pad.

No smoking
Cigarette smoke can cling to furnishings, drapes and other window coverings and work its way inside walls. Some topically applied solutions can help to reduce the stench, but an ozone generator, hydroxyl generator or air scrubber should be more effective. Experts find these methods very effective in absorbing odors, though there is no guarantee that an odor can be eliminated.

Marketing & Negotiating the Yin & Yang of Home Sales

Both marketing and negotiating will be uber-important to have in the broker or agent you choose to list your home and get it sold.

Marketing

Some might see marketing as the most important because, to put it plainly, if your home is not exposed widely and aggressively to prospective buyers, you'll never have the buyer viewings and offer(s) that must come in for you to even be faced with the high-class problem of negotiating the price and terms of a sale.
However, I don't see marketing skills as the requirement so much as your listing agent having a clear, comprehensive marketing plan that he/she is able to present to you with case studies of marketing that they've done for recent properties somewhat similar to yours. It's critical that an agent's marketing plan for your home include details such as:

• how they would help you prepare or stage your property for sale;
• what their plans are for listing the property on the local multiple listing service(s) and publicizing it to other brokers;
• what on-site marketing they would recommend (i.e., yard signage and/or open houses); and
• how and where they would place your home's listing online, down to which sites they'd list it on and how many pictures they would include.

Negotiationg

But negotiating is essential too -- especially if you're very concerned about being bullied or taken advantage of.  Ultimately, though, when it comes to negotiations, you're going to be faced with making the ultimate decisions about what your bottom-line price and other terms are, including whether you're able to offer incentives like closing-cost credits or whether you can afford to contribute to any repairs the buyer's inspectors require. What I suspect you want is to feel like you're protected, which will come from having an agent you trust who's "got your back," but also has the experience and knowledge of local standard negotiating practices and buyer psychology that comes only with experience -- and I mean recent experience getting homes sold in today's market climate. I cannot emphasize enough that one efficient method of finding such a listing agent is to get referrals! Look to any family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbors whose homes are on the market now and ask them if they would strongly recommend their agent, and why.
If it's tough to get referrals, go into the various online real estate websites and their local discussion boards, and see which local agents are giving sensible, knowledgeable answers to consumers' questions in those forums. During your interview process, ask for references -- and call them! Speak to their recent past seller clients, to see how happy they were with the agents' service.