Selling a house with pets

All-

I'm hoping for some suggestions from the wise folks on TE. We are planning to put our house on the market in the spring (for a whole lot of reasons - scaling back, want to be able to move if need be without dealing with selling, etc.). I've been fortunate that prior to this, we have been able to move, then put a house on the market and sell it (without having to show it while we're living there).

We have a Golden Retriever and 3 cats. All are well behaved, but it is my nightmare that the cats (one in particular is adventurous) will get out, and I'm not sure 100 lbs of dog following people around is a good thing for selling. We don't have a basement, or really anywhere out of the way that we could confine them (it's a very small house). We can bring out the dog's crate again (he was crate trained until age 2), but he will bark (again, not good for showing). Does anyone have any creative solutions for how to handle the situation? We are planning to market and try to sell ourselves - and that should be the easy part. However, I'm realistic - and if that doesn't work after a month or two, we might well need to list with an agent and deal with regular showings. I mostly work from home, so that's another wrinkle that will have to be dealt with. From what I recall, showing windows tend to be several hours - and I don't want to just load the animals in the car and drive them around for that long....

At least we're thinking about 5 months ahead on this issue....

Thanks in advance!

Having been house hunting for six months, what I saw is that dogs were crated for home showings.

this is an issue that Realtors deal with often, talk to your realtor. Are your cats the type that try to escape? If not, just be real specific about keeping doors closed because cats will generally hide when strangers come into the house. Can't help you with the dog.

My next door neighbor, who is a realtor, boarded his dogs (at a place about 20 minutes away that had tons of outdoor space for them to run around), then repaired his wood floors and had all of his carpets and drapes steam-cleaned. The dogs stayed in boarding until they moved into their new place. I think it was a couple of months altogether. Not ideal, but they also had to juggle the needs of two small children.

If a prospective buyer were to walk in and be allergic, hopefully those measures would minimize any bad reactions they would have to the house.

When we sold our house in NC, we had to get creative because we had two dogs, a cat, and neither of us worked anywhere near our home.

We had a big garage and we set up a nice area in one corner of it with a scrap of carpet, a space heater, and both dog crates with dog beds in them. (This was in January & February, by the way.) Then, when we left the house for the day, both dogs went in there. We put a note on the door that lead into the house that said it was the garage and that the door should not be opened until they were almost done with the showing because it would trigger barking that might be annoying while viewing the rest of the house. Our realtor also put a note in the MLS listing for realtor viewing as well. It's pretty common, so no one seemed concerned.

We also made sure that all showings had to be arranged with at least 1 hr notice. This gave us a chance to lock up the dogs, swiffer the hardwoods and then leave. If the weather was good, we often took the dogs with us and hung out at the dog park for an hour or so. Rarely, were showings any longer than that!

You think a dog and three cats is a problem? I can't even imagine how we would ever sell our place with goats and chickens running around, ducks who crap all over the deck and two dogs and a cat that have indoor/outdoor access and track mud everywhere when it's raining...which is pretty much most of the year. It's part of the reason we've held off as long as we have on listing our place! :rolleyes:

the short time that I was in the market to buy, I often saw notes that the place was tenanted and required minimum 24 hours notice. You can always stipulate something like that so you're not running around at the last minute trying to figure out what to do with the animals. When I went to view, I never stayed longer than 15 minutes, but that's a condo and not a house but not sure if you need HOURS to view a house?

That said, if you're selling without a realtor, you can ask for a fairly long lead-up to showing. Then maybe one of you can go out with the dog and the other, who is showing, can keep an eye on the adventurous cat so he/she doesn't get out?

good luck!

It would be wise not to have your pets roaming around while showing a home:

There are still many people who have never lived with pets...like me.

ANd then those, who are allergic...like my partner..who had pets for first 40 yrs. of his life but over time developed allergies. And he used to be a part-timer farmer on top of all this.

Two things. First, HGTV runs "Get it Sold" on Wednesday mornings starting at 10:00 ET, and "The Unsellables" on Thursday mornings at 10"00 ET. They show 3 episodes of each back to back. It would be worthwhile to spend some time watching these shows to learn about staging.

Second, I know a guy who has a cat. He sold his condo a couple of years ago and bought a townhouse, but recently sold the townhouse to move to a different area. Both times, he sent the cat to his mother's house before he put listed his home. He also did a lot of decluttering. Both places sold quickly even though it's a buyers market around here.

Good luck!!

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

It would be wise not to have your pets roaming around while showing a home:

There are still many people who have never lived with pets...like me.

ANd then those, who are allergic...like my partner..who had pets for first 40 yrs. of his life but over time developed allergies. And he used to be a part-timer farmer on top of all this.

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Shootingstar-

This is why I was asking what others have done. They have to be somewhere, and I wondered if others had good ideas about how to handle them.

Thanks for the suggestions.

We are actually planning to rent a storage unit and moving a significant amount of the stuff (including furniture) in the house out before we list it. One of our cats will either have to be riding around with us in a carrier or confined in the house during showings. Otherwise, he would try to get out. The other two would hide.

Unfortunately, we don't have good family resources who could keep the animals while the house is on the market - I wish we did! I also can't imagine the expense (and stress to them) of boarding them for the months it might take for the house to sell. We hope it will be quick because we're in a good area that is still moving relatively quickly - but one never knows.

As far as the showing windows - the showings themselves tend to be short. However, the realtors here usually book them in 3-4 hour increments (so we wouldn't know when in that window they might show up).

I have a friend who takes her dog to a "doggie day care" place on Saturday afternoons while she runs errands and meets friends for lunch. Might there be a place near you that's similar? That might be a partial solution.

I think this is the place my friend uses, just to show what I'm talking about.

http://www.furgetmenot.com/

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Originally Posted by Blueberry

As far as the showing windows - the showings themselves tend to be short. However, the realtors here usually book them in 3-4 hour increments (so we wouldn't know when in that window they might show up).

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That was not our experience when selling our house in Efland in 2010 through a realtor. Our realtor asked how much notice we required. We said one hour. You could specify less or more. They booked all showings through a central booking agency who would call and make an appointment, rather than individual realtors calling us. They nearly always made an exact time appointment ("We have an agent who would like to show your house at 2pm on Thursday") and generally showed up pretty much on time. If there was a cancellation or time change, they'd call and tell us that too. We would normally vacate about 15 minutes before a scheduled showing just in case they showed up early.

Since we had 11 acres, a few interested potential buyers actually took the time to hike the property, requiring us to be out of the house for 60-90 minutes, but most stayed 15 minutes or less. We were lucky as it was in the spring, and we would just take Paisley out on a walk/hike while they were there; we never even had to take our car out. We could see when they left since we were walking on the road we lived on, so then we could just head back home when they drove away.

With a smaller yard, I would expect most buyers to be in and out quickly. Weather permitting, and since you work at home much of the time, could you take your dog on a walk during a showing?

No suggestions for the cats since I'm allergic so have never had a cat in a house we've had on the market.

GOOD LUCK! :)

When we first came to see the place that we bought, the dog ran out the door and bit Brewer (!), but it isn't a marketing strategy that I would recommend.

When we sold our home I took my cats to my parents house. The cats actually ended up living there for about 4 months while I sold the house and then we moved across stated. We live in NC, my parents are in Ohio. We have 3 cats and at the time had a 4th that was a stray that never left. That 4th cat was never accepted by our 3, but he also went to my parents home where he was accepted by her cat and now lives happily there.
Now when we bought our home here and moved out of our rental we did have the cats in the rental while it was shown. I made sure the realtors showing the house knew there were cats and they were told to make sure the doors to the outside were kept closed. (Yes our three will typically hide, but don't want to take any chances). Also made two other requirements no showings after 5pm Sunday through Thrusday and 24 hr notice. This was basically for 2 weeks, while we got moved. Once we were moved we lifted the restrictions, while we still had stuff in the townhouse and then had to tell the central booking agency after we were out that they didn't have to call us any more since we were out and it was turned back over to the rental agency.

You could crate the cats also. Most cats will settle down and take a nap when crated. A towel or blanket over the crate would help to settle them down also.

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Originally Posted by lhayes

You could crate the cats also. Most cats will settle down and take a nap when crated. A towel or blanket over the crate would help to settle them down also.

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and always have food in the crate and they will start looking forward to the experience.

I just shut my cats in the bedroom, and the realtor told people they were in there, and to make sure all outside doors were closed. I think they just hid under the bed or in the closet. No one escaped.

I also bought my last house with dogs in it. I remember being slightly afraid to go in, since the realtor didn't know them, and the owner wasn't home. But they were Chocolate Labs, and the were so friendly and sweet. Not great guard dogs! :D I think they made me like the vibe of the house even more. So, don't worry about it too much. It will work out.

Forgot to mention in my previous post that we sold our house over the summer and just put our dog in daycare on days when we knew the house was going to show. He had been going to that daycare for nearly 2 years so it was totally normal for him.

I would take the dog out during showings. We always did that with our dog.

I would crate the cats or take them too.