When my wife and I bought our first fixer upper in Montpelier, a friend used that expression.  She was right.  We bought the smelly house, fixed it up, rented it for a year, sold it to the tenants, and came out ahead.  Not bad for first timers, we thought.

I appreciate it when buyers have the same mentality.  We looked at some homes for sale in Northfield today, and, quite frankly, one of them smelled.  Love dogs or hate dogs, having two golden retrievers and at least two cats in the fully carpeted house made it kind of smelly. 

The other two houses we looked at were noticeably un-smelly.

Which one did my buyers like best?  You got it--smelly.  In fact, the wife began affectionately calling it "The Stinky House". 

She's got it right.  Pull out the carpet and paint it, and it'll smell like new.