Potential home buyers might be in the market for a property just like yours, with its two washrooms, big back yard, double car garage and updated stainless steel appliances.

But none of these features will mean a thing if the place isn’t cared for and looks it - with smudged windows, grimy sinks, and carpets that are about to crawl away - and when we say crawl, we mean it.

Whether your living room rug is shag or berber, that floor surface is likely seething with bacteria - 200,000 per inch, according to expert Philip Tierno, microbiologist and the author of The Secret Life of Germs.

If that invisible horror story isn’t enough to send you flying to the phone to schedule a quick rug shampoo, here are a few other reasons why professional carpet cleaning (like ChemDry Rapid Dry) and quick real estate sales go hand and hand.

Easy Upgrade

Renovations are expensive. New, attractive appliances, landscaping, or necessary upgrades like eavestrough and new roof shingling can run into the thousands. Even the price to simply have your walls painted can be prohibitive. In contrast, hiring a professional carpet cleaner to clean and refresh your floors will likely set you back only by a few hundred, resulting in an easy refresh at a budget price.

Smell

There’s a reason that scented air freshening products have cornered the house-cleaning market. Everyone knows that after time spent living in a place, you lose the ability to smell your own home, include odours like mildew, dogs, and cigarette smoke. Carpets are like sponges that soak up all these scents. When a potential buyer comes through your front door, wouldn’t you rather they smell a thoroughly cleaned and deodorized wall-to-wall than Rover, your stinky 13-year-old Lab?

Feel

Lots of real estate viewers kick their shoes off to explore new places both out of respect and in order to get the feel of living in your rooms. If your carpet isn’t at its best underfoot - matted down, crusty in places from spilled drinks or even just not its best, lofty self - sensitive buyers might opt to look elsewhere on their search to find a home that’s been better cared for.

Convenience

Most conscientious real estate vendors want to leave their place looking its best for the new owners - from raking up the leaves in the yard to cleaning out the corners under the kitchen sink. You’ll likely want to have your carpet cleaned anyway, so why not do it early enough that it can also help your house appear its very best and earn you a quick sale, at your asking price.

Having your carpets cleaned by a professional might seem like an additional, unnecessary expense. However, it could mean the difference between enticing people to love your home as much as you do or scaring them away from all those invisible germs.