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I wonder how much this really is an issue for people. I have pets (cats and dog over the years) and am not critiquing this. But it may be a blind spot for pet people.
A neighbor has two large breed dogs and has had a house that seems impossible to sell though its in a nice area and "hot" market. The feedback she has gotten is that the house "smells like a dog" and is off putting to buyers. This is objectively true, the smell part. Its pungent and immediate when you walk in the door.
She has been offended by this feedback and doesn't seem to have made any changes to alleviate the pet smell. Her yard is a "dog yard" and not landscaped/torn up and her floors definitely show that big dogs have been running over them for years. The house seems structurally solid and has nice curb appeal from the front. Its just when you get into it that these things become obvious.
As a buyer, would you avoid this kind of house? As a seller would you be able to work with this feedback and make changes or hope that someone of like mind makes you an offer? As a realtor, have you had this sort of situation?
Wife and I would never buy a house like that.
We where looking at a house a few weeks ago and the fabreeze was so strong it was obvious they where trying to cover something up. House smelt of stinky dog and fabreeze. Took all of 3 seconds to scratch it off the list and go to the next house.
Dog owner (and previous cat owner) here. I wouldn't buy a house that smelled like that or was in disrepair due to the dogs/cats. In my experience, cat smell is the worse, and there's nothing more difficult to get rid of than litter box/cat pee smell. As a buyer I would just try to avoid it.
That said, having 1 dog in the house at this point (golden retriever), I have to take active, extensive steps to make my house *not smell* like dog 100% of the time. At a bare minimum, this has involved the following:
1) Bathing the dog at least 1x/week, more if he's been out running or swimming, etc.
2) Having wood/tile floors in all dog-accessible areas. Carpets and rugs wanted to retain smells, so we got rid of them. There are new carpets upstairs, but our dog isn't allowed up there.
3) Keeping dog off of the furniture. The dog bed gets washed and sanitized at least every other week.
4) We have someone come and deep clean the house 2x/month. In between I sweep the floors and vaccuum up excess dog hair.
5) Airing out the house/airflow during the months that this is possible. I don't like to use chemical sprays, but fresh air helps.
This is all a huge, massive pain but kind of what you have to do with a dog, especially a large dog. I can't really imagine having more than 1 large dog, especially in a carpeted house or apartment. The smell would likely be overwhelming no matter how much you clean. It doesn't mean the people are dirty themselves, but it's really not even something you could probably cover up at that point.
I would go as far as to remove all existing floor coverings like carpet, tiles, vinyl and replace with wood, engineered laminate. Dogs would have peed on floors during the time they were in the house, accidents happen. If you have kids you don't want them playing in a yard where dogs have done their business for many years. I'd skim the top layer of soil on the yard and re-sod it all.
If the homeowner says they can't afford to do it, well they can't afford not to do it. I'd use my credit card to have it done and then pay it off once the house sells.
Between rain and the natural decomposing process, as long as there aren't mounds of dog poo all over the yard, I think your suggestion is overkill. It's not like dog poo builds up over the years.
Dogs, cats, and wildlife defecate in public parks, playgrounds and woods where kids play as well. It's impossible to create a sterile environment outdoors.
I wonder how much this really is an issue for people. I have pets (cats and dog over the years) and am not critiquing this. But it may be a blind spot for pet people.
A neighbor has two large breed dogs and has had a house that seems impossible to sell though its in a nice area and "hot" market. The feedback she has gotten is that the house "smells like a dog" and is off putting to buyers. This is objectively true, the smell part. Its pungent and immediate when you walk in the door.
She has been offended by this feedback and doesn't seem to have made any changes to alleviate the pet smell. Her yard is a "dog yard" and not landscaped/torn up and her floors definitely show that big dogs have been running over them for years. The house seems structurally solid and has nice curb appeal from the front. Its just when you get into it that these things become obvious.
As a buyer, would you avoid this kind of house? As a seller would you be able to work with this feedback and make changes or hope that someone of like mind makes you an offer? As a realtor, have you had this sort of situation?
If it's such a hot market, and pet smells / scratches are the only complaint, it may be feasible for the pets to take a temporary vacation while the house is on the market, allowing some repairs. But that would only work if she wasn't in denial!
I'd avoid this type of house 100%. Because I'd want ALL of the flooring replaced, and no one's going to do that. Not the owner, because of the task/cost, and not me because I wouldn't want to buy something that required so much work.
I don't know, it depends on the materials in the house. I imagine I'd rip out any carpeting and padding anyway and, if necessary, replace the plywood underneath where necessary if there was a lot of urine issues. If it was already hardwood and the urine had made it's way underneath it could be more of a problem. I bought two houses with carpets and pets and even though I didn't notice too much just replacing the flooring and painting the walls seemed to take care of everything smell wise. I had a harder problem with the dishwasher in my current house, not matter what I did the house smelled like scented detergent whenever I ran it. I assumed it was old, built up and undissolved detergent in the plumbing somewhere. That was fixed when I remodeled the kitchen.
I looked at a house once that I swear was used to house big cats, like panthers or whatever. The smell was "wild" and the damage was intense. I've never seen walls and doors with that type of damage before. Didn't, and wouldn't, consider that one!
Dog owner (and previous cat owner) here. I wouldn't buy a house that smelled like that or was in disrepair due to the dogs/cats. In my experience, cat smell is the worse, and there's nothing more difficult to get rid of than litter box/cat pee smell. As a buyer I would just try to avoid it.
That said, having 1 dog in the house at this point (golden retriever), I have to take active, extensive steps to make my house *not smell* like dog 100% of the time. At a bare minimum, this has involved the following:
1) Bathing the dog at least 1x/week, more if he's been out running or swimming, etc.
2) Having wood/tile floors in all dog-accessible areas. Carpets and rugs wanted to retain smells, so we got rid of them. There are new carpets upstairs, but our dog isn't allowed up there.
3) Keeping dog off of the furniture. The dog bed gets washed and sanitized at least every other week.
4) We have someone come and deep clean the house 2x/month. In between I sweep the floors and vaccuum up excess dog hair.
5) Airing out the house/airflow during the months that this is possible. I don't like to use chemical sprays, but fresh air helps.
This is all a huge, massive pain but kind of what you have to do with a dog, especially a large dog. I can't really imagine having more than 1 large dog, especially in a carpeted house or apartment. The smell would likely be overwhelming no matter how much you clean. It doesn't mean the people are dirty themselves, but it's really not even something you could probably cover up at that point.
Two large dogs is a huge pain. But laminate flooring, Roomba everyday, mopping once a week, vacuum under furniture and stuff (dog hair hides), and we run a air purifier. But both of our dogs are short hair, on hardly sheds at all, and one is a mild shedder. If we leave them out in the heat they smell, but when they stay in the AC they don't.
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I have always had pets. (big dogs too) I have sold four houses with no issues. I even pet sat dogs in my last house. It's all about cleaning. When you get ready to show your house, do a deep cleaning. If you have carpets, shampoo them. If they are soiled, you may want to switch them out. If the floor boards are soiled, you might have to apply Kilz or worse case, replace them. As mentioned, wood floors, laminate floors or even vinyl floors are easier to keep pet odors out. You can shampoo your furniture too. Keep in mind, you should do this a couple weeks before so no odors are left behind. Wash all the comforters. Pick up pet bowls, toys, beds, crates, litter boxes when showing the house. Have a bin to put these things in and remove them from the house. Put it in the garage, shed, or take it with you. If at all possible take your pet out when the house it is being shown. Have a bottle of fabric freshener handy to spray the couches, comforters, etc. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum and mop. Leave no sign of a pet in your home and it may not even be noticeable. Put air fresheners out. Glade plug ins work very well. Clean up all the poop outside. There are plenty things that you can do to disguise pets. Lots of people love pets but some people just don't. As you can see here, there's a chance you could lose a sale if buyers notice pets lived in the home.
*Note, you may not smell pet odor because you are used to it. Once you get your deep cleaning done have a friend or family member, who doesn't live there, come over to see if all odors are gone.
We did look at a few homes that had musty smells. Some were pet smells, some were "eldery or sick person lived here" smells, some were just plain musty. The smell wasn't the reason we didn't buy any of those houses, if they had been extraordinary houses in other ways we probably would have looked at it as something we could fix. But smelly houses also seem to have other issues that indicated a minor level of neglect. The house we ended up buying was one of the ones that was "fresh".
As a seller:
The moment you decide to sell, get an objective opinion on things like musty smells, and start doing something about it. I would ask a few friends, as well as realtors. Scratches on a wood floor, and teeth or claw marks should also be repaired, if possible.
Do what you can, and then talk to your realtor about how such a thing should affect the price. What I would not do is give two hoots if some buyer came along and tried to use this as a "bargaining chip." (Unless the house just hasn't had any nibbles at all, in which case you may be at the point of dealing with that sort of game playing.)
Some buyers will try to find any defect they can imagine if they think a house is ready to be "lowballed"; if it isn't "oh I see you have a dog, now you must lower your price" it'll be "oh I see you have rose bushes. Now you have to lower your price." Can't blame 'em for trying, but I'd just say "thanks, but no thanks" and move on. If the buyer is a flipper you can always take their information and come back to them if the house never does sell. They'll probably still be interested.
As an observer:
FWIW I've been watching all the houses as they list/sell in my neighborhood. Some of the fast selling ones have had plenty of pets. Some of the slow selling ones have had no pets. So, to be honest, as long as you make some effort to clean up any damage and freshen any mustiness, I don't think it's that big of an issue.
Question for the people here - would you avoid looking at a house if you saw photos online in which it was clear that a pet had lived there (i.e., cats)? Would you still go to the house to look at it or would you just assume that it must smell like a litter box in there and not even bother going to look at it? Thanks!
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But laminate flooring, Roomba everyday, mopping once a week, vacuum under furniture and stuff (dog hair hides), and we run a air purifier. But both of our dogs are short hair, on hardly sheds at all, and one is a mild shedder. If we leave them out in the heat they smell, but when they stay in the AC they don't.
Lots of people love pets but some people just don't. As you can see here, there's a chance you could lose a sale if buyers notice pets lived in the home.
