Should Kitchen Exhaust Be A Searchable Criteria?

Recently I had a new buyer referred to me. I love referral business and immediately got in touch with him to see how I could help. He was looking for an average home in my sales area and I was pleased to help him search for properties. But one small issue came up almost immediately; he wanted only to see homes with cooking exhaust vented to the outside of the home.

That was a new one for me. Yes I pay attention when showing any home to whether or not the kitchen hood has an exhaust. Sometimes it only recirculates the air back into the kitchen. This happens often when a microwave is installed above the kitchen range. Microwaves have fans and a metal grate type filter, but otherwise they only blow the smoke around -- not vent it beyond the source.

Usually when you find a traditional range hood installed above the stove/range, it is vented somewhere. A lot of times you can verify this by looking in the cabinet above the hood where you'll find a vent pipe. Then you must determine where that pipe goes. Take a quick trip to the attic and see if you can locate the pipe (usually the same metal as used in heating ducts and air conditioning). Sometimes this pipe vents to the attic, but often vents to the outside.

Older homes are less likely to have kitchen exhaust vents. They merely let cooking vapors dissapate into the kitchen. Childhood memories of walking into grandma's house on Thanksgiving or Easter, where the smell from the kitchen permeates the entire house, are still strong in my mind. But nowadays this is less desirable. And cooking practices in less traditional American cultures often have more frying, hence an oily exhaust in the kitchen.

The problem is that this fact is not disclosed in MLS listings. It is not a searchable parameter. So how do I find homes for my buyer that only have cooking exhaust vented to the outside?

I e-mailed a list of 40 listing agents, all with homes that otherwise fit my buyer's needs. I asked them to confirm whether or not their listing had cooking exhaust vented to the outside.

25 agents have responded so far. Only 2 have confirmed yes. 6 responded that they do not know and I can call the owner or show the property and determine for myself. 8 responsed that they will check and get back with me. 1 responded that the microwave vented the exhaust, which I already addressed in an earlier paragraph.

9 responded something like "we can ask the seller to install one, this is a good house otherwise, don't let this get in the way of showing and selling." (By the way, this is what I would have responded if the question was asked of me and my property did not have the exhaust vent.)

Some have simply blown this question off, which does not fair well for the sellers they represent. Whether this is a good way to search for a home or not, a good listing agent could easily check this out, and really should already know.