How to…

Convince your sellers that pets don't help the sale.

Your sellers love their pooch and treat him like part of the family. When you took the listing, you suggested many ways to prepare their home for showings, including removing traces of their furry friend. Thus far, your clients have failed to heed your advice regarding their pet.

Why does Spot have to go?

Tell them that an estimated 10% of the U.S. population suffers from pet allergies. Ten percent may seem like a small fraction of people, but consider that the “typical” home takes five weeks to sell, according to NAR’s 2003 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. How many potential buyers will view the home during those five weeks? Explain to your clients that failing to reduce their pet’s presence in the listing could immediately give some pet-allergic buyers a negative impression of the house.

Remind your clients that a home sells better when buyers can envision themselves living there, which means making the property as impersonal as possible. A pet and its accompanying odor contribute to the individuality of a home—part of what distinguishes the house as the clients’. Equate boarding the dog or removing the litter box for showings with putting away the sellers’ wedding photos.

Hair of the dog

You’ve convinced your clients to remove the pet; now convince them to remove evidence of the pet. It doesn’t matter if the poodle doesn’t shed or the cat has short hair. Pet dander (skin flakes) causes allergies and most odors.

Encourage your sellers to vacuum daily, preferably with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter that will pick up dander as well as hair. Suggest that they vacuum well in advance of a showing, if possible, rather than immediately before buyers arrive because vacuuming kicks up dust and dander.

Propose that they shampoo carpeting and clean upholstery and, while the home is on the market, try to
limit pet access near these objects. However, even if the pet stays only in the kitchen or laundry room, its dander will still spread through the house via heating and cooling systems whenever they come inside. But restricting pet access to certain rooms will limit its effects.

From a sales point of view, the more time the sellers keep their pet away from home, the better. Tactfully inquire as to whether Spot can spend some quality—and quantity—time at a friend’s or relative’s home while your client’s house is on the market. The less time the pet spends in the house, the less time and effort will be required to clean up after it in preparation for buyers.

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