Our property management company recently evicted a tenant, and upon inspection, we found the house completely trashed. We’re preparing to sell the property, but the condition was extreme—there was so much garbage it was difficult to walk through, and we found urine and feces on both the floors and walls.
Since then, we’ve removed the carpet, painted the walls, and cleaned the subfloor with Kilz, but the odor still lingers. To make things worse, the central A/C unit isn’t working. It’s a small 3-bedroom house.
I have two questions:
What more can we do to fully eliminate the odor?
Should we invest in replacing the central A/C unit, or would window units be acceptable for resale?
We’ve already put in a lot of money and honestly aren’t sure what to do next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Try using an ozone machine. You can get them inexpensively on amazon. Do not run them when there is anyone in the house. The other thing is to check for water leaks. I had a hot water tank leaking in a new house I bought, but the inspection didn't pick it up and the smell from the previous owner's dogs masked it. We had to rip apart the bathroom (which was fine in the end, but an extra expense I didn't budget for).
Try using an ozone machine. You can get them inexpensively on amazon. Do not run them when there is anyone in the house. The other thing is to check for water leaks. I had a hot water tank leaking in a new house I bought, but the inspection didn't pick it up and the smell from the previous owner's dogs masked it. We had to rip apart the bathroom (which was fine in the end, but an extra expense I didn't budget for).
Hi Kinju, It is unfortunate that this happened to your property. For the smell, I had some luck using "Natures Miracle" urine/ spot and stain remover. I have also used a wood bleach, but that was geared more towards hardwood floors. As for the AC, was it diagnosed to be completely broken? Did you have a technician you trust look at it? while the windows AC should be fine, If you already have the central air, personally I would try to keep it. I totally understand the issue of a money pit though.
Real Estate Broker · Cape Coral, FL · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
1y
We purchased an ozone machine and it has removed every lingering odor that it encountered, as long as the source has been removed. We use it a couple of times a month with move outs and for a few hundred dollars, it was worth the purchase.