The rats themselves don't smell. They have a scent like any other animal, but nothing bad. It's the bedding, pee, and poo that smell. So just keep on top of maintaining the enclosure and you'll be fine. If you're ambitious enough, you can even litter train them. And that would definetly cut the smell down by A LOT. I'm in the procession of training some of my girls. They always relieve themselves in one corner, so I'm going to put a litter box in that corner. If they start using it, I'm going to remove all of their bedding and use fleece or something. That will be cheaper, less time consuming, and cleaner in the long run. I don't have much hope for my boys as they just crap wherever in their tub.
I keep my rats in my apartment.
I change my bedding once a week. The smell is usually the worst around day 5-7. I've used a number of things. I personally think pet grade granule bedding is the best, but it's expensive. I used it for when I had like 3 rats. Now that I have more, I use both shredded aspen or wood stove pellets. The pellets are easier to clean with minimum mess. Aspen smells better, but it's a little more messier.
Good food also helps. What goes in, must come out. Cheap quality food usually makes their fur and poo smell more.
But as others have said, it's all about the VENTILATION!
I have an air purifier and it works extremely well. The smell cut down by more than half for me. It helped with my allergies and kept the rat dander down. It also allowed air flow.
So I HIGHLY recommend getting a purifier.
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