Selling your home when you’re a pet owner
By Gina Spadafori
May 20, 2007
Back in 1989, when I was real estate editor at the Sacramento Bee, I assigned a piece on how to sell a home when you have pets. Seemed a natural idea to me, since I’ve never been the kind of person to have “backyard dogs” or “outside cats,” and so my own home most definitely has a pet feel to it, and if I’m honest, a pet smell.
And I knew that people who were allergic, sensitive or just plain picky would not like walking in to a house with pets, and wouldn’t like signs that they had been there even if their physical presence was not.
This was before people “staged” homes for selling. Now, I can’t imagine a real-estate agent worth his or her commission who wouldn’t recommend doing something about your pets, especially in a cooler market. This piece from the Quicken Web site offers some tips:
While you may think your dog or cat is a snugly, cute and lovable family member, your prospective home buyer may think of that pet as a stinky, hairy, destructive nuisance. The bottom line — dogs and cats (and other pets) can actually make your home harder to sell.
So what do you do?
Experts often suggest that you put your pets in a kennel. Out of sight, out of mind. This is one of the surest ways to keep your house presentable while showing.
Here’s the rest. Incidentally, when I finally went to sell my home, in hottest of hot markets, my real-estate agent suggested I empty the home, paint inside and out and offer a landscape credit.
Yeah, I guess there was no way of hiding the all the critters I have.
Maybe there should be a pet-friendly MLS. . . I’d use it. I would love to buy a home that is already set up for pets!!!
Comment by Bonni — May 20, 2007 @ 2:24 pm
There is a pet-friendly real estate site that started earlier this year. The Pet Realty Network http://www.petrealtynetwork.com/. You can connect with pet-friendly real estate agents and search for pet-friendly property too.
Laura
PS. I have no direct connection to the Pet Realty Network, I just follow it because it was started by Rhona Sutter, who ran Pet Protect, a pet insurance company I used to watch.
Comment by Laura Bennett — May 20, 2007 @ 6:16 pm
Thirty-five years ago, when my mother was considering selling our house, she had the real estate agent who’d sold it to us originally come out to see the house.
He suggested getting rid of our dog and cat.
Not kenneling them while the house was being shown. Getting rid of them.
It was a conversation-stopper, and my mother decided not to sell. When she finally did sell, ten years later, she used a different agent, and there was no discussion of getting rid of the pets. Or, there may have been—my mother may have begun the conversation with a discussion of our previous experience.
Comment by Lis — May 20, 2007 @ 8:01 pm
The internet sign shows up and shuts off.I can’t get into the blog. to read any of the articles that you wrote or in the comments. I had to find another way to get in to it.
Comment by Jill — May 20, 2007 @ 8:18 pm
Boy, can I relate! we sold several homes over the years with a dog and many dogs. The best insurance is a good vacuum cleaner!! and some great smelling candles( not lit). The last go around - I remember the agent and client remarking; what did I do with the dog hair!!! they even looked under the bed. I ran it AM, noon, and night. But it was worth it to sell the house.
Also, made sure that when the lookers came me and my dogs were not around. It used to bother me that houses could look like WW III had hit(families with children out of control) and my dogs were clean, my house was tidy - but it sold!
Katie
Comment by Katie — May 20, 2007 @ 8:33 pm
I dread the day when it comes to selling my house.
How in the heck am I supposed to hide & stash all our large dog beds?! What to do with all the 50 odd stuffed animals escaping their crate & found “wandering” all over the house? Don’t even get me started on the “fluffies” billowing around the hardwood floors whenever my labs blow their coats. I can’t even go the store without someone asking me what kind of CAT I have, lol. I pray my vacuum holds out but I’m not holding my breath.
Kenneling is not an option. Taking the dogs camping for a few days at a time though, might be. ;)
Comment by Ally — May 21, 2007 @ 6:38 am
We sold our house 3 years ago easily — and we had 3 dogs and 2 birds in residence. I too thought it would be more of a hassle than it really was. Yeah, the market hadn’t cooled yet, but it was a pretty easy “staging routine” when someone was going to show up to look at the house. Two of the dogs went next door, the birds and the other dog came with me. The lone house crate was stashed in an obvious storage area and then I made a mad dash through the house with a Swiffer in one hand and Febreeze in the other. We also limited the dogs to a small, fenced and mulched area of the yard so they wouldn’t trash the whole thing.
Comment by Deanna — May 21, 2007 @ 7:18 am
Yes, keeping the house clean is definitely a chore, but a mandatory one! I actually put in a doggie door and built a cat-house on our back patio so that I could lock the cats outside during the day. I would never trust a visiting realtor to pay enough attention to not let the cats escape while showing a house. As for the dogs, I left them crated in their room (a back bedroom most people would use as an office) and they did fine during the showings. I even had one realtor give me a great compliment — he said he didn’t even know there were dogs in the crates until the client pointed it out.
Eventually it was my borzoi who sold the house. We saw some people parked outside looking at the flyer. We invited them in and the first thing my usually aloof borzoi did was go up to the lady and give her the leaning “hug”. They bought the house that weekend, but for some strange reason, still don’t have a dog.
Comment by Jill — May 21, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
I shudder to think about selling my house - maybe it will be easier that I think. I figure to rent a place in the country and move into it with all animals, then sell my house cause there’s no way for me to keep my hounds quiet and they’ve never been boarded - can’t see leaving them alone in a concrete kennel either -but where there’s a will there’s a way - thank you all for the great ideas here.
Comment by Linda — May 21, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
I tried the petrealty you mention, but not many listings except the 10 in CA
Comment by Bonni — May 21, 2007 @ 4:42 pm