Home Selling Tips for Pet Owners
Because I care for a number of pets myself, I realize that it's next to impossible to pry home sellers away from their pets. Snakes, lizards, hamsters, birds, cats, dogs and rabbits -- they all distract from the sale of a house and possibly cost home sellers tens of thousands of dollars. Why? Because buyers often offer less for homes where pets reside.
Some home buyers are allergic, others dislike pet odors and smells or are afraid of animals, yet sellers refuse to board their pets during home showings. If that's not bad enough, some pets bolt and never return when real estate agents open the front door.
To find out how you can increase the safety of your pets during house showings; how to overcome objections to pets, eliminate pet odors and stains; and deal with dirty cat boxes and barking dogs to get the sale, here is advice on how to get top dollar for a home with pets in residence: read more
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© 2004 Elizabeth Weintraub
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Comments
Great article, and I can say from experience that there is nothing worse than accidentaly letting a client’s cat out!
I can’t imagine anyone who loves their pets, like most people do, boarding them for an extended period of time.
I know plenty of people who have sold their houses with their dogs and cats still living there. What worked for them (and me) was picking up toys, etc. like you mentioned, and taking the dogs to a friends or for a ride while the house was being shown. That much less disruptive, for everyone.
Alison
Given the number of stray cats whove turned up in our kitchen and movedin, anyone buying our house when we eventually move had better be a catlover anyhow. (And none of our cats have fleas.)
I’ve sold my own home with cats around — but the point is how much more could I have received without pets in residence? I watch buyers’ reactions to pets in the house, and it’s not attractive. And because I have cats — or the cats have me, hard to say — I’m not particularly keen on buying a home where another cat has lived before — if you have cats, you know why.