Ideally, you'd send them to live with family or board them while selling. That's what we have done with the huskies every time (either sold while we relocated elsewhere or sent them for live-in boarding or to my IL's).
If you can't do that, then you're making more work for yourself cleaning and changing the litter constantly, but it probably won't hurt sales if you're vigilant.
I would not, however, allow the cats to stay in the house during a showing *unless* the house is all hardwood and you're in a hot market, because every person who walks through is going to wonder if on humid days the carpet will smell like cat urine. So if you can do it, I infinitely prefer the illusion of no pets when selling. But, I mean, clearly there's no hard and fast rule. If you're in a hot market and priced well then obviously it's a factor you can overcome-but there's no question it is a black mark to some extent.
Seriously - I live alone. I work 30 minutes from my house. What the hell do people want me to do with my cats while I'm at work? Sure I could wrangle them out for an open house or showings on the weekends, but during the work week???
Post by katiescarlett on Aug 30, 2016 14:24:50 GMT -5
Our cat hid when people came and the realtor said she could just stay. When we came to view our current house there was actually someone hanging out in the yard with the previous owners dog.
Talk to your REA for an idea of how important it is in your market. Some markets are definitely more sensitive to that than others.
If it's at all possible, take out every sign of a pet. I agree that just seeing a sign of a pet leads people to think they see/smell things, even if they absolutely aren't there. So keep that in mind when you get feedback. And know that for every 5 buyers who aren't bothered at all by it, there might be one who almost automatically puts it in their "no" pile. (Obviously numbers are just a guess.) So, if you're trying to sell a tough to sell house in a tough market, do everything possible to remove them. If you're in a hot market with a popular house/price range, it probably won't affect the sale of your house one bit.
Oh, also, I put old towels over each of our litter boxes before each showing.
I had a friend who cut the bottom out of a box that was a bit bigger than the cat box, wrote "KITCHEN ITEMS" on the side like it was a packing box, and dropped that on top of the litter box for showings. She put another legit packed box next to it. I thought that was pretty genius.
We sold in a super hot sellers market, so we just left the cats to roam, Mad Max style. Litterbox exposed and everything. The house still sold in a day, so I think we got lucky. But, our house was 90 years old, so I am pretty sure people were 100% aware that there'd been pets in the house at some point and weren't turned off by that.
We just made sure the litter box was clean all the time; the cats hid under our bed whenever anyone came in the house, but we made sure all the agents showing the house knew that they were absolutely, positively NOT to get outside.
This is what would stress me out about leaving my cats behind. I don't trust other people to not let them out. My cats are also super friendly and would probably come greet everyone at the door.
We bought our new house, are moving, and will then list our house. Too much stress for me to worry about my cats while half the time I'm traveling and can't be there to clean up.
Post by RoxMonster on Aug 30, 2016 17:01:11 GMT -5
I love pets (dogs more than cats...), but I would be surprised to see a pet at a showing. Maybe just because that wasn't my experience when we were looking. I guess I'm surprised that a lot of people have left them in the house.
I think it would be preferable to remove them if possible (you have advance notice of the showing, etc).
Our first house, we removed the cats to a friend's place when we put it on the market, it was a sellers market and we had a ton of showings plus two open houses and sold in a week with multiple offers. We barely lived there during that week, basically we came home to sleep and shower only.
Second house, it was a decent market but nothing crazy like the first time. The realtor advised not to bother with open houses as they mainly attract nosy neighbours. Had we had open houses, I would have taken them out but for regular showings it was not possible. Anyway, it sold in a month, close to asking. We did take great pains to keep things as clean as possible.
We didn't remove our cat for showings, just the dog. I guess I would try to find somewhere for him to go during an open house, but not during random showings.