Selling A Home With Pets

Selling A Home With Pets maybe difficult but after reading this article you should find it a lot easier!

Almost everybody loves pets except the home buyer who is buying your house. Selling a home with pets can be extremely difficult. Don’t ask me why, but that’s often how it works out. Home sellers who adore their pets have a hard time imagining the negative attitudes others harbor against pets. Further, this might be a bitter pill to swallow, but if you truly want to get top dollar for your house, pay attention to how much you might lose with a dog or cat in residence.

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• Nervousness: Pets make some people very uncomfortable. Not everybody grew up with a family pet or enjoys outings at the zoo. Fur and four legs do not a human make.
• Fear—real and irrational: It’s not only dogs that instill fear in people. All kinds of silly wives’ tales and superstitions involve cats.
• Inexperience: Pets are not always predictable.
• Your pets aren’t their pets. They imagine yours bite, jump, vomit, claw, spit-up hairballs or are just plain hyper and bad — which is not all like their pets. Their pets are perfect.

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You’re probably not going to like this but I’ll say it anyway, fully realizing that this very excellent piece of advice tends to upset people. The best thing to do to ensure top price for your home is to relocate your pets while your home is on the market. Putting them in the backyard, in the garage or in another room that you keep locked is insufficient, and it’s not fair to them. For best results, you need to remove them from the house. Here’s a few tips when you’re selling a home with pets.

• Let a friend or relative care for Fluffy and Spike.
• Board them at a kennel.
• Send them on vacation.
• Take them to work with you for the day.
• Move out and take your pets with you.

If you shrug off all professional advice and absolutely refuse to move your pets out of the house, then at least minimize the objections and nuisance factors, real or otherwise:

• Cat Litter Boxes & Dog Potty Pads: Keep them out of sight and impeccably clean. Nothing turns off buyers faster than opening the door to the laundry room and being greeted by a full or stinky cat box. Please do not put a litter box in your bedroom closet.
• Carpet & Floor Pet Stains: Hire professionals to remove the stains. Buyers will spot them and form unfavorable opinions about the rest of the house. If the stains can’t be removed, then remove the floor covering and replace it.
• Pet Odors and Smells:
  • Cat urine is the worst. Without question. The. Worst. Bring in a neighbor to do a whiff test. Dog odor gets into carpeting and pet beds, too.
  • Do not use air fresheners. People with allergies will react.
  • Try enzyme cleaners such as Simple Solution or Nature’s Miracle or call a professional ozone company.

You may be required by state law to disclose that pets have lived in your home, but you don’t need to advertise that pets live at your house. Removing signs that you have a pet is simply a smart practice. Why turn off a buyer at the get-go? It’s those first impressions that are so all-fired important.

• Do not put photos online showing your cat asleep on the bed
• Seal up doggie doors
• Put away food and water bowls when not in use
• Vacuum religiously, every day, sometimes twice a day
• Pick up pet toys and put them away
• Pack up cat trees and other signs of cat paraphernalia
• Remove photos of pets from refrigerator, walls and table tops
• Pack up all cages, carriers and other tell-tale signs

Put your pets into a carrier and attach a note warning buyers not to disturb them. The last thing you need is somebody sticking their hand inside the carrier and getting bit or scratched. You can’t predict how your pet will react when locked up and alone.