Don’t Let Your Pet Soil The Deal!
Categories: Chattanooga Real Estate News
Many of us love them, but most buyers hate them - pets. It’s the strangest phenomenon, even pet lovers will move away from homes with pets - odor or not, or they’ll “penalize” the seller with a lower offer. A pet odor, even a slight odor, can make a home totally unsellable at a reasonable price; many buyers are allergic to pets and just won’t buy a house with a pet.
I hate to say it, because I love my dog Taffee, and my family couldn’t do without our “man’s best friend”, but bottom line, pets cause problems for sellers. It’s happened to me countless times when a buyer walks in the front door of a beautiful home, smells an animal and then turns around and walks out. Exotic pets have their own problems and smells that need a sellers attention.
“To find out if you have a pet odor, ask someone else because chances are you can’t smell it.”
Any odor requires an aggressive response to eliminate it; don’t try to cover it up as buyers will see (or smell) right through it.
When Fido has an accident inside, don’t just clean it up, use a special product, found at pet stores, to eliminate it.For instance we use a product called Nature’s Miracle which is a liquid enzyme that counteracts the enzymes in pet urine. Your pet won’t smell it again and neither will you or your buyers. These products aren’t cheap, but they work.
If you’ve got a cat, clean the liter box everyday - even twice a day. Cleaning the carpets is frequently only a band-aid fix and the smell will be back before you know it. Frequently the carpet needs to be professionally treated for pets or replaced. In rare situations, the subfloor must be disinfected and sealed, but it’s worth the investment to get rid of the smell. (Click Here for More Information on Eliminating Pet Odors)
“If you’ve got a few dogs, or your typically smelly dog (like a hound dog), then your best option might be to move out, fix up the place, replace the carpet and then sell for a top dollar.”
Pets present in the home for showings and open houses are also a problem. Some people are terrified of animals and they’ll be terrified of your Fido or Garfield - even if its the nicest pet ever. Jumpers can really turn-off a buyer and may cause them to turn around and leave without even seeing your home and all it has to offer.
“A barking dog will distract a showing and cause them to leave before they have a chance to fall in love with your home.”
Also, having strangers in the house can be very stressful for your pets and could trigger an aggressive reaction from an otherwise docile member of the family.
Realtors are also scared to death that the pet will get out during the showing. There’s even a great story where a Realtor thought they’d let the cat out, so she put the cat on the porch back in the house. But the cat didn’t belong to that home and you can only imagine what the homeowner found when they came home; it wasn’t pretty. Another memory is a buyer walking into a dark room and stepped right into a pile - and it wasn’t a pile of clothes; what a mess. So, it’s best to all together remove the animals during a showing or at least secure them in a kennel, the back yard, the garage or some other “safe” place. Remember that buyers won’t be able to see where the dogs are secured, so pick that place carefully. It’s best that they’re not there at all. It’s even better if the buyers can’t tell they’ve ever been there.
Pets require the seller’s vigilance before and during the home marketing process. Tackle it aggressively at the outset and you’ll get a great result; ignore it and watch the value of your home slip away.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Chattanooga Real Estate News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Great post! And unfortunately for most sellers, very true. We all have and love our pets and with a slower market, they are just as much or more work than picking up after the kids before a showing. love the blog design and name.