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I am curious how you manage showing your house when you have pets? My husband and I are both gone all day at work and I have four cats. I would be fearful of allowing showings during the day because no one wants to show a house with animals and I would be afraid that the agent/lookers wouldn't close a door and one or more animal would get out. Nights and weekends I could round up the kitties, put them in the car and leave during a showing (after hiding the food/water bowls and litter boxes). What do the rest of you do about your animals?
We have a pug and I either take him with me or put him in his crate (He is crate trained)
We also have two cats and we put their litter box and them in the garage for showings. It is easier for me since I am home most days so they don't have to stay out there long and it isn't that hot here now.
You could put up a sign asking the visiters to make sure and not let the cats out. Or try to confine the cats to one room.
I have two dogs and a cat. Showing the house was always a lot of work for me. I had to leave the office, go home, make sure there wasn't any "pet accident", and take my dogs out for a long walk 1 or 2 hours. This was early spring and it was raining almost every day and very very cold. It seemed like forever to stay soaked outside until the agent called me to tell he was done. The cat could stay in the place because he would hide as soon as someone came in.
You may want to consider hiring a pet sitter to come to your house during the showing. The sitter could round up your cats and contain them until after the showing and then make sure they are comfortable before leaving.
Just be sure you can trust the pet sitter.
Don
We have a pug and I either take him with me or put him in his crate (He is crate trained)
We also have two cats and we put their litter box and them in the garage for showings. It is easier for me since I am home most days so they don't have to stay out there long and it isn't that hot here now.
You could put up a sign asking the visiters to make sure and not let the cats out. Or try to confine the cats to one room.
Terri
We also have a pug and we do the same thing.
We have been to houses during our "new home hunt" and some people had their cats in one room, with a sign that read "do not let out the cats", and the agent and ourselves were always really careful about that.
I think the biggest problem we came across with some of the homes we looked at with pets was the smell. Maybe get some Lysol or plug in air fresheners. Thats what we did. When you live in your home, you don't notice the pet smell until you go into someone else's house, then you realize that the pets do carry an odor. Good Luck.
I had 8 cats and I can imagine what you're going through. For litterbox, I put them in the laundry room since I don't have a garage. I put the cat in the laundry room as well. I work from 9 to 5pm so I told my realtor on my schedule preference. For example, if showing in the morning, the cats stay in the laundry room until I come home for 11 or 12 pm lunch to let them out. If showing afternoon, I come home at lunch time and put the cats in the laundry room. I let them out when I get home. I put the sign up on my laundry room's door "Do Not Enter - Pet Inside".
If you don't have a laundry room, you can put them in one of your smallest bedroom and lock it. Explain to the realtor that you have pet inside. Most buyers want to see the kitchen/bath/master bedrooms FIRST as well as backyard/basement.
Hope this helps.
ps - oh, I forget - use Fabreze to spray the whole house to eliminate kitty smell. It works for me.
I have two Rottweilers. Actually, they are very charming and social, but unless someone has been invited into the house by me, my boy really isn't comfortable with strangers in the house, in my absence.
I don't like to leave them outside when I'm not home, so a neighbor who knows them would come over, let them into the back yard when the realtor came over, then let them back in afterwards. The whole yard is visible from the back windows.
I have one of those ionizer air machines going 24/7, the realtor said there wasn't a doggie odor in the house.
I have two dogs and a cat. Showing the house was always a lot of work for me. I had to leave the office, go home, make sure there wasn't any "pet accident", and take my dogs out for a long walk 1 or 2 hours. This was early spring and it was raining almost every day and very very cold. It seemed like forever to stay soaked outside until the agent called me to tell he was done. The cat could stay in the place because he would hide as soon as someone came in.
Oh my gosh. That's exactly what I used to do. I have 2 cats and fortunately I was working close to home that I could run home and check all areas to see if there were any accidents. Since a private showing generally takes like 10 minutes or so, I would let them roam around. Then when the people would leave, I would close up the house and head back to work. When I had open houses on the weekend, I would put them in their crate and place the crate in our sunroom, then put the food/water bowls and litter box in the garage. It wasn't so bad since the open houses are generally only 2 hours long. It's very stressful as it is to sell your home, then to worry about pets? That's just another notch on the stress level chart. I remember going to see a home and the owners had this really friendly cat, followed us throughout the house. Then we opened a door to a bedroom that had been closed and we saw a bird in its cage. Well, there was no note to make sure the cat didn't get into that room, but let me tell you the cat didn't mind one bit. So we had to scoot the cat out of the room to avoid any mishaps between the cat and the bird.
I think the biggest problem we came across with some of the homes we looked at with pets was the smell. Maybe get some Lysol or plug in air fresheners. Thats what we did. When you live in your home, you don't notice the pet smell until you go into someone else's house, then you realize that the pets do carry an odor. Good Luck.
Yes that's correct. I used to spray the rooms just before they would show up. But you're right....we are so used to the smell that we don't even realize that there may be an odor. Every time my best friend comes over I ask her if she smells anything. She has a sensitive smell to pet odors so it's good to know I have another pair of nostrils to judge.
I had 8 cats and I can imagine what you're going through. For litterbox, I put them in the laundry room since I don't have a garage. I put the cat in the laundry room as well. I work from 9 to 5pm so I told my realtor on my schedule preference. For example, if showing in the morning, the cats stay in the laundry room until I come home for 11 or 12 pm lunch to let them out. If showing afternoon, I come home at lunch time and put the cats in the laundry room. I let them out when I get home. I put the sign up on my laundry room's door "Do Not Enter - Pet Inside".
If you don't have a laundry room, you can put them in one of your smallest bedroom and lock it. Explain to the realtor that you have pet inside. Most buyers want to see the kitchen/bath/master bedrooms FIRST as well as backyard/basement.
Hope this helps.
ps - oh, I forget - use Fabreze to spray the whole house to eliminate kitty smell. It works for me.
Even a bathroom that is not used too often. That's where I used to keep their litterbox.
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