When you are selling a house with pets there are things that you need to think of before you market and list your property. While I absolutely love my dog, she’s not going to appeal to every one. Just because I love my dog doesn’t mean everyone else does, and that’s especially true when home-buyers are coming through their potential forever home.
Why Don’t Home Buyers Like Your Pet?
A lot of people haven’t grown up with a family pet and are inexperienced being around them. Pets are not always predictable and that makes some people nervous. Whether someone has had a bad experience with an animal in their past, or they have some irrational fear, sometimes people are just afraid of pets!
A few things you can do to prepare your home when listing:
Litterboxes...Keep them out of sight and impeccably clean – always. 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, and make sure you have a litter box with a cover or a lid that will help to contain the smell. Hide it away as best you can.
Carpet & Floor Pet Stains...If your carpet has pet stains then hire professionals to remove the stains. Buyers will spot them and form unfavorable opinions about the rest of the house – a first impression means everything. Some potential buyers can have a hygienic problem and this can easily trigger off some problems in their mind.
Fur...Unless you’ve got a hairless cat or a non-shedding dog, you’re going to have fur in the house. Even if your dog is short-haired and you can’t really see the fur, there’s most likely still fur. Make sure that you’re vacuuming and sweeping multiple times a day, and at an absolute minimum once a day.
Smells...Get the carpets and upholstery cleaned, thoroughly wash the floors, if your pet has history of accidents on a particular area rug just get rid of the rug, feed dry food instead of canned (the smell lingers longer than you know), throw out old stuffy toys, put away the dog and cat beds and fix any damage the pet has done to the home.
This may require some investment on your part, but the value you’ll get for your house will be well worth paying for the repairs. If buyers see something that’s damaged, they’ll start looking for or assume there are other issues somewhere else in the home.