Three weeks ago we I adopted a dog from an animal shelter. After a week we had totally fallen in Love. In fact we had to take her in for some treatments and leave her overnight and we were so worried about her. It's hard to believe they can steal our hearts so quickly!
But just because WE love our pets doesn't mean everyone else does. When your house in on the market pets can be a real problem AND can cause you to loose a sale or can cause you to sell for a lot less.
I know this may sound harsh but your pet can no longer have the run of the house. Some people are truly afraid of dogs and even cats. If the prospective purchaser is worried about the dog biting them, they will not be paying attention to your house. Not to mention that the fear they feel will be projected onto the house. Also animals under stress are more apt to have an accident - if you follow my drift. That is NOT a good way to welcome someone to your home (and those little pee pads are awful)!
Locking the dog in a room is not good if they are going to claw at the door. This is not only a nuisance but messes up the property you are trying to sell. Also, if you leave the dog outside that is fine, but if it scratches the door, the buyer envisions a major repair that needs to be made.
One thing you can do is crate the animal. It doesn't have to be a tiny crate, there are larger crates and temporary cages at the pet store. Set these up in the garage or a remote corner of the house.
Another is to board the pet for the day. You can ask for 24 hours notice of showings and if you know someone is coming, make arrangements for the pet to spend the day at the doggy spa. It is not as expensive as you would think and certainly less that the amount you will loose by not having the pet contained or loosing showings all together.
Of course, you can always just remove the pets and drive around in the car or walk the streets during a showing, but this is not practical if you work outside the home, and gets old really fast. Agents typically ask for a 2 hour time frame so you will need to be gone for two hours. We don't ask for a 2 hours time frame because we want to irritate sellers, we try to give a large window so we can make sure we'll be there when we say we will. Sometimes buyers spend a lot more time in a house then we expected and we don't want to run late.
We love our pets but we need to remember that our objective is to sell the house for the highest price possible.
If you have any qestions about homes for sale in Hoover or the greater Birmingham, AL area, contact me at www.ToniBird.com. I'l be happy to give you any tips on Buying or selling a home.
