When it Comes to Odors … It's the Smell of Money!
Getting rid of tough orders in your properties can really be challenging.
If you’ve been investing in real estate for any amount of time, you have almost certainly come across properties that smell terrible. I’m not talking about regular odors or mustiness; I’m talking about the ones that you just can’t get rid of with regular cleaning products. Real estate investors like to say that those odors are “the smell of money”.
One of the worst things you can ever deal with is pet urine, but there are other odors that are almost impossible to get out of a property such as curry, and cigarette smoke from a long term heavy smoker.
Surefire ways to get rid of the odors
There are a number of products that you can use to attack the problem when it comes to getting rid of tough odors in your properties. Here are three that I know you can count on.
Nilium
One of the best products I have found for odors is called Nilium. I love this product! I have personally used in rental houses to get rid of odors.
It is a highly concentrated, water soluble liquid that can not only be used for cleaning, and water extraction systems, but it can added to paint to get rid of long standing odors in drywall. I have used it in paint with great success. Nilium has a choice of pleasant fragrances and it is economical to use. A quart costs roughly $10.00 and you can purchase a gallon for about $31.00 in my area. You only use about 1 or 2 ounces per gallon of water or paint so a little goes a long way. You can find this product locally without any problem.
Hydrocide
My daughter is a professional property manager who currently manages over 500 units. You could say she is an expert at getting rid of tough odors in your properties.
Hydrocide is a product that her carpet cleaning professional uses regularly. As you can imagine, they have a lot of issues with pet odors in carpet and also from problems that occur after water leaks.
Pet odors often remain even after the carpet has been replaced. You can use Hydrocide to seal concrete floors in slab houses before installing new carpet. It eliminates odor permanently on contact. It also destroys odors in carpet, upholstery, mattresses and grout. It works on urine and just about any other really bad odor you can think of.
Hydrocide costs about $23.00 for a pint or $89.95 for a gallon. I will include a link at the bottom of this post for information on where you can purchase it in your area.
Ozone Machines
Ozone machines are the last line of defense in a many cases for getting rid of tough odors in your properties. Ozone machines change oxygen (O2) into ozone (o3) by the high voltage electrical charge the machine produces. Professional grade machines can only be used in unoccupied rooms.
Not only will they permanently get rid of hard to remove odors like curry that permeate areas, but they kill surface and airborne mold in unoccupied rooms. These machines are particularly useful for places like apartment communities where they a larger volume of water leaks.
These machines are light weight and easy to use, but professional quality machines can set you back $1500.00 or $1600.00.
I need to leave you with a word of caution about this machine. Because it removes all of the oxygen from the room, not only do you need be sure no animals are left behind but it will damage anything that once was “part of an animal”. By that I mean leather and suede boots, shoes, belts, bags, sofa’s etc. These items will be seriously damaged or ruined if not removed or put in a tightly closed garbage bag. Large items like sofa’s can be wrapped in plastic or kind of “shrink wrapped”. The professionals that use these machines can give you more information.
For more information on Hydrocide or Ozone Machines check out http://InterlinkSupply.com. Once you are at the site you can put in your zip code and it will tell you where you can find these product locally.
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Hi Clay – I have used all of those products and they are great! I especially love putting the Nilium in paint to get rid of odors in rental property. Give it a try.
Thanks for the information! Nothing more discouraging than walking into a potential deal only to have a horrible smell. I’d never heard of these products before, but I’ve printed out the information and plan on using them for our next project.