Selling a home with pets

[lolalolalola]

We have 3 cats. They are hairy beasts and despite my best efforts there is cat hair everywhere! Like tumbleweeds of fur. We have three litter boxes, 2 are out in the open because one cat don’t go if it’s enclosed. We have another one who scratches at the weatherstripping by our front door and will dart out if the door is left open for more than a second.

I don’t think there is anyway we can list our house with these cats. But the alternative is to list after we take possession, carrying two mortgages. Which is fine but if we move before listing then we will be listing an empty house which is also not ideal! Empty houses don’t show as well, and they portray the owner is more “motivated” to reduce price.

Any advice?

Eta- we are not in an location that is super hot with homes selling on the first weekend. Most homes are on the market for a month and I expect we would have several weeks of showings before a sale.

[expectantsteelerfan]

That is tough.

We bought and moved out before listing our old house. Listing an empty house was a much better option for us than listing an house that our stuff was exploding out of because we had too much. Our realtor planned to stage the house before listing, but we ended up in a time crunch and she virtually staged it and showed it empty. Our market was still pretty hot when we listed, and we did accept an offer after just one weekend on the market. If it had taken longer I would have pushed for her to stage it. So that might be your best option (we loved not having the stress of buying and selling at the same time, but carrying 2 mortgages was stressful too even though we sold quickly and could afford it).

If you do list before moving out, is there someone who could pet-sit your cats for you for at least the start of showings? Or is there a room in your house you could put them in and just tell the realtors not to go in that room or open that door (and make sure they have a photo of the room to show)?

We looked at a LOT of houses, and although we def. looked at houses where we could tell pets were present or had been present, we were never in a house with loose pets we had to worry about.

[Susie]

I think this is easier to manage in a hot seller's market because you don't have to manage it for a long period of time with casual buyers, multiple showings, open houses, etc.  We put our house on the market on a Friday this past April, with showings to start Sat (next day).  H took both kids and our golden retriever to his parents' house for the weekend while we had back to back showings all day Sat & Sun.  I spent Fri night de-fluffing the house, then Sat & Sun I hid out at my office, and came home at night to freshen up.  We chose from our offers on Monday, so it was only 2 days of it.  We still had to handle inspections/etc., but by that point the buyers were already under contract so I was less worried about impressions.  

It turned out they were dog people anyway.  At their inspection, their agent texted our agent, who texted us, to ask if it was ok to let our dog out of her crate because they wanted to pet her.  lol.

ETA:  We also rented a storage unit while we were house hunting ourselves, and before listing.  We offloaded all manner of crap we wouldn't need for the coming months -- Christmas decorations, china, kid clothes to grow into, sports equipment, photos, etc.  It really helped the house look less cluttered, personal, and full.  We also put everything from the dining room sideboard into storage so the sideboard was empty, making it an easy place to clear crap to in a hurry, that buyers wouldn't be interested in opening (because it was furniture, not a built in cabinet).  We did the same with other storage furniture so that cabinets/closets that buyers WOULD look in, looked emptier.

[samanthamkm]

My best friend put her cat in a walk in closet and took a picture of the closet. Placed the picture and a note about not opening the door because the cat wasn't friendly on the door.

I would crate the cats or board them if possible. My husband was attacked by a cat in one of the houses we looked at. Another house had a loose cat and we left shortly after we saw the cat because the cat started to act strange.

When we listed our house we rented a storage unit. We filled it and staged the house. We rented it for 3 months. That was enough time to sell our house and move into the new one.

[purplepenguin7]

I also have 3 cats that are giant a-holes ( I love them, but they truly are). We are planning on boarding our cats for 2 weeks when we first list. If we haven't sold by then we may request weekend only showings and board them for just a night at time. It will be pricey, but I can't trust my cats not to puke on the bedroom carpet 5 minutes after we leave.

[mrsukyankee]

We didn't have a cat but a dog. We put him into daycare whenever we were going to have a showing (our house took multiple months to sell - London was not a hot market where we were). It was a pain but worth doing. We did visit a few homes that kept their cats in the smallest bedroom which they locked - stating that if it was a final viewing, they'd do something with the cat(s) so that we could see the room at another time.

[deadwing]

When I sold my last house, I put my (one) cat in a large dog crate in the basement with a very small litter box (possibly even just a large tupperware with litter) and small water/food bowls. It wasn't ideal, but it was only a few days. I only did this on days we were having showings, otherwise my cat hand normal access to the house.

[lolalolalola]

Thanks everyone. Right now we are planning to list after we take possession of the new house. We would stay living in the old house while it’s up for sale, but move the cats to the new house. We can also move our extra ‘stuff’ over to assist in staging. .

Unfortunately we don’t have anyone who could take them, and they won’t do well locked in a room- they will for sure destroy the carpet trying to get out.

[lo]

We weren’t in a hot market but our house sold surprisingly fast so we didn’t have to do this for long:

Only had showings scheduled in advance after I was home from work. We put the litter boxes in storage totes and put them in the basement. Put the kids, cats and dog in the car and drove through a drive through for food. Tried not to kill everyone for an hour.

That doesn’t help with cat hair issue, but our house was small so I just vacuumed right before we left. Good luck!