Selling Your Home with a Pet (or Pets) 🐶 😾 [VIDEO]

Question: Libby, we are going to sell our home, but we have pets. Do you have any advice for us? Answered by Libby Guthrie

Video Transcript

Hi, Libby Guthrie here at Keller Williams Realty in Northern California. Selling a home when you have pets. We’re going to talk today about that.

It can be stressful to sell a home in general, even for human beings. But then just think about how it could be for your cat or your dog. And we’re going to zero in on the cats and the dogs when showing a home.

So we, as pet owners, we all know that pets have their own little routines, and any time any of those are disrupted, they kind of freak out. 🙀

For example, if we move our dog’s bed, for some reason, when the cleaners are here or somebody is coming to visit or something, and that bed is not where it normally is, that can make them a little concerned.

The cats also can be concerned, for example, if somebody moves their scratching post and it’s moved in a different place, or it’s moved out of the home completely. That can freak a cat out.

So, then you throw in people coming and going and looking at the house, the doorbell ringing, and that really can make dogs and cats nervous.

So one thing you want to think about is if you can crate your dog 🐕 or cat, that could be one solution while someone is showing the home. But be careful that if that dog or cat likes to nip at people, and if for some reason, somebody bends over close to that crate and you’re not around and the dog or cat nips at that person, that’s not going to be good.

So you may want to just have a game plan that you are with the dog or cat the whole time while somebody is showing the home.

One thing you could do is just step outside in the back, for example, and be out there with the dog or the cat while someone is showing the inside of the home and then vice versa. Or you could take the dog for a walk or,  take the cat and go for a ride, and the dog, and go for a ride in the car while somebody’s showing the home.

So another thing to address when having pets in a home, is we’ve seen that sometimes their pet’s odors are in the home and carpet staining, for example.

So you want to address those prior to putting the home on the market if you can. If you don’t have the money to do that, then you’re probably going to need to reflect that in the list price of the home.

So ideally the thing to do would be to remove the carpet and the pad, treat the flooring underneath there, sometimes we have seen that you have to remove the baseboards too, if there’s been some spraying there. So get that done prior to putting the home on the market.

Of course, you would need to disclose that the pets have made stains there or have, you know, done some damage there.

So just keep that in mind when you’re selling a home and try to make it as normal as possible for your pets.

And if you have any questions regarding selling a home in general, I’d be happy to help you.

My number is (925) 628-2436. Thanks a lot.

Libby Guthrie