5 Tips to Keep Pets From Interfering With Your Home's Sale

When selling a home, it's important to keep it looking its best at all times. This task may be somewhat more challenging when there are pets living in the house.

With these tips, you can stage your home to its best effect for prospective buyers, while at the same time avoiding extra stress for yourself or your pets.

Consider Relocating Pets

Selling a home while you still live there is hard enough without adding worried pets into the mix. Having pets occupy a space that has been carefully staged to entice buyers is sometimes a recipe for disaster. For example, you cannot expect your dog to avoid hopping up on a new couch if he was allowed to sit on the old one.

Instead, you might consider temporarily keeping your pets with family members or a trusted kennel on the day of a showing. You will find it easier to keep the home in show-ready condition, and your pets will not be around to distract the frequent visitors.

Make Thorough Repairs

Pets leave their mark on your home, sometimes with more than just the occasional mess or unpleasant scent. Pet nails can scratch hardwood, and there may be bare patches in the lawn. Get started by taking note of any damage caused by pets and create a detailed plan to make repairs.

This could involve sanding down and refinishing hardwood, or replacing severely scratched tile or laminate with new flooring. Add new sod or get creative about landscaping to effectively eliminate any bare spots in the yard, taking care that it's not obvious you are fixing a problem.

Get Objective About Odors

The trouble with odors in the home is that the longer you spend with them, the less likely you are to notice. In other words, what might seem to you like a faint scent of wet dog or cat litter could, in fact, be overpowering for someone else.

Enlist the aid of an objective friend or a professional stager to root out the source of all unpleasant pet odors and work to eliminate them. Some studies show that home buyers prefer the scent of citrus or vanilla, but remember that simply blasting these scents throughout the home is unlikely to cover up pet smells. Wash pet bedding, thoroughly clean carpets and upholstery, and give dogs a bath frequently.

Depersonalize the Space

Traditionally, experts have recommended removing all signs that pets live in a home in order to make it more appealing. This is because many buyers will assume, and perhaps rightfully so, that a home with pets may need more preparation and cleaning before the new owners can move in.

So, to attract the broadest range of prospective buyers, it's typically best to remove obvious signs of pets, such as bedding or crates, doggie doors and food bins.

Feature Pet-Friendly Accommodations

On the other hand, sellers are beginning to realize that a pet-friendly home is an enticing prospect for many buyers. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) notes that 37-47 percent of households have at least one dog, and about a third have a cat.

Families with pets buy homes, like anyone else, and they may be more likely to purchase a property that is obviously pet-friendly. So, if you have a fully fenced-in backyard that would be ideal for large dogs, do not hesitate to show it off. Be sure to provide information about proximity to pet stores and dog parks. That way, buyers who have pets will appreciate your making it easier for them to transition their pets to a new home.

Having pets is a wonderful part of homeownership. However, once you decide to sell a home, you'll need to invest time, money and effort to get the space up to a buyer’s standards. You may choose to make it seem as though there are no pets living in the home, or you may wish to emphasize the pet-friendly nature of the property. Either way, an investment in cleaning and repairs ahead of time will make it easier to sell any home with pets.