Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I love how everyone replying thinks their pets don't smell...
Newsflash: they do. I have severe allergies to pet dander. I can't last more than a few minutes in a house with a cat or a dog, let alone several. And it ALWAYS smells. I can ALWAYS tell. Even if the owner washes everything every single live long day. I can always always always smell a pet.
There is this delusional thinking about how some animals are free of smells and lemme tell you that they are not. Carpet is NOT your friend.
I buy and sell or buy and flip houses and one of my bargaining chip is whether or not it's been occupied by pets. I send in crews to get the place to a standard suitable for me, allergic like crazy, to be able to breathe in and deduct that from the asking price. It's not cheap.
I love threads like this because people really do think they are somehow escaping the reality of life by just being special. Your pets smell and people like me will absolutely take advantage of that fact to pay less for your house.
What are you talking about? Clean dogs do not smell. Sorry if you disagree, but obviously if you are flipping properties, you aren't buying from people who have cared for their homes and probably aren't keeping their dogs clean and healthy. It's so silly to make judgment calls based on your limited (yes limited, properties purchased to flip are not the same as homes that have been cared for) experience. Newsflash: if you have severe pet allergies, then don't purchase a house that's had a pet live in it. Pretty simple to me.
Funny how you think you know all about purchasing properties from pet owners and think you can use pets in the home as a bargaining chip. My house sold for over asking. I had multiple offers. I had 4 dogs and 2 cats living in the house. Now who is delusional? Not me.
To add to all that's been said, as someone who is allergic to dogs & has asthma, yeah, I don't want to move into your dog house. If there's carpeting, absolutely not... that's an added expense for me to rip it out & put down hardwood flooring.
It would be far easier if they'd vacate, place all their furniture in storage, scrub the place from stem to stern, air it out (now's the season to do just that before winter comes) & rent a modest place to live in so it will sell. When I was selling my mum's house in Boston, the realtors made me move everything out before they would begin to show it & said that I could not be there when they had showings. It sold in 2-3 wks.
I'm looking to buy a small place next year. I prefer an empty home, so I can see all the surfaces... how flush the floors are to the walls... is there white powder around the baseboards where pests came in, etc. I also don't like a staged house, particularly if it's not new. I want to see all the little flaws & possible damage I may need to address and/or decorative changes I may need to make, so I can tally it up in my head as I'm taking a walk through.
What it comes down to is, do they wanna sell or not. We can't take realtor advice personally (no one's placing an indictment on their pets... saying there's a pet smell is reasonable & helpful to them as sellers)... like when the realtors had me walking the streets at 7-9pm in Boston blizzards with bronchitis, no less (not kidding), cuz several folks wanted a late viewing. Of course I left & with a smile... I wanted to sell. Even put on fresh artisan coffee & left $$$ bakery goods every single time I did leave.
It wasn't "my" house anymore. I wanted it to be thought of as "yours" when you came walking through, so you'd buy. They're being money foolish to do otherwise.
As long as there's no urine in the sub floor, I can generally get the odors out by pulling out any carpets and pads and then cleaning the floors with a several doses of enzyme cleaner, depending on how bad it is. I'm also a fan of the new steaming mops. They help, too.
When DH and I were looking at houses to buy about 15 years ago, we saw one that we really liked and the real estate agent met us there.
We walked up the sidewalk and the smell of s_t hit me immediately. I didn't know where it was coming from but it was pretty strong since my husband (nose dead) also noticed it. The smell got stronger as we approached the door to the house. When the owner opened the door we were assaulted by the odors of unwashed dog, urine, and s_t again. We found out that the crap smell I had caught a whiff of walking up the sidewalk had come from the backyard; the woman had let the dogs out to do their business and had NEVER cleaned any of it up. In fact, the dogs also had done countless jobs and leg lifting all over the house.
Um, no thank you. I didn't say anything or visibly react but politely told the realtor that I wasn't interested and diplomatically explained why. The realtor did not act surprised in the least when I explained.
We had 2 cats in our last house. We were selling it, and I was also concerned about any possible smells or anything that could hurt our chances of selling. But since we had new carpeting and pad installed just before putting it up for sale, there were no cat smells. Our cats always used the litter boxes anyway, which we scooped religiously. Any minor “accidents” were cleaned up ASAP. But yes, if your home smells like pet urine, it’s doubtful anyone will buy it.
What are you talking about? Clean dogs do not smell. Sorry if you disagree, but obviously if you are flipping properties, you aren't buying from people who have cared for their homes and probably aren't keeping their dogs clean and healthy. It's so silly to make judgment calls based on your limited (yes limited, properties purchased to flip are not the same as homes that have been cared for) experience. Newsflash: if you have severe pet allergies, then don't purchase a house that's had a pet live in it. Pretty simple to me.
Funny how you think you know all about purchasing properties from pet owners and think you can use pets in the home as a bargaining chip. My house sold for over asking. I had multiple offers. I had 4 dogs and 2 cats living in the house. Now who is delusional? Not me.
I agree. Clean dogs do not smell. Clean cats do not smell. Dirty dogs that aren't bathed and groomed properly smell, just like humans who don't bathe regularly or have good hygiene smell. Dog and cat urine and feces smell, just like human urine and feces smell.
Proper bathing, grooming and cleaning prevent/get rid of smells. And yes, occasionally a pet owner might have to replace something that won't come clean -- a rug that a pet had an accident on, for example. Just as a parent might have to replace something that a kid puked on.
Now, I believe that the poster you quoted can tell if there have been animals in a house because of ALLERGIES, but not always because of smell.
I agree. Clean dogs do not smell. Clean cats do not smell. Dirty dogs that aren't bathed and groomed properly smell...
Yes. I had 2 black cats for 14 & 19 years, respectively, 1 an angora with very long hair. I also had white throw rugs, white comforters, linen & bed pillows & white sofas. Both kitties didn't like other people, only me, so they'd hide whenever anyone visited & appear the second they'd left.
Because I'm not a hoarder, swept floors daily, used lint brushes on the sofas daily, vacuumed & shook out throw rugs & placed them in the dryer on the Fluff cycle twice weekly, cleaned the litter box each & every time it was used & brushed my cats daily... there was no hair floating around, no litter box smell & several people asked if it were a joke that I said I had cats as no one ever saw them, smelled them & only saw pet bowls on the floor.
I was stunned when I mentioned you're not supposed to smell a litter box, cuz it's like an unflushed toilet... it only represents an inattentive owner... that everyone said all their friends with cats had homes that smelled & were filled with hair & those were they reasons they didn't like cats. That's not normal. Neither is a layer of dog hair covering anything... furniture, rugs, stairs, clothing... or gnarly smelling birdcages, aquariums or small pet cages, like hamsters & guinea pigs. Clean!
No living thing in your home should leave a continual lingering smell... humans, pets, plants. If they do, the adults need lessons in proper hygiene.
We have two, 90lb dogs that live in the house, BUT we took out the carpeting downstairs and they do not go upstairs. On occasion if it's been hot and they have been running around the smell of dog can become apparent, then they get baths and the house is "decontaminated", anytime before house guests or if showing the house, it is thoroughly cleaned with lysol and such.
I would HOPE an agent would share that the house smelled so we could fix it.
__________________ ____________________________________________
My posts as a Mod will always be in red.
Be sure to review Terms of Service: TOS
And check this out: FAQ
Moderator: Relationships Forum / Hawaii Forum / Dogs / Pets / Current Events
Yes. I had 2 black cats for 14 & 19 years, respectively, 1 an angora with very long hair. I also had white throw rugs, white comforters, linen & bed pillows & white sofas. Both kitties didn't like other people, only me, so they'd hide whenever anyone visited & appear the second they'd left.
Because I'm not a hoarder, swept floors daily, used lint brushes on the sofas daily, vacuumed & shook out throw rugs & placed them in the dryer on the Fluff cycle twice weekly, cleaned the litter box each & every time it was used & brushed my cats daily... there was no hair floating around, no litter box smell & several people asked if it were a joke that I said I had cats as no one ever saw them, smelled them & only saw pet bowls on the floor.
I was stunned when I mentioned you're not supposed to smell a litter box, cuz it's like an unflushed toilet... it only represents an inattentive owner... that everyone said all their friends with cats had homes that smelled & were filled with hair & those were they reasons they didn't like cats. That's not normal. Neither is a layer of dog hair covering anything... furniture, rugs, stairs, clothing... or gnarly smelling birdcages, aquariums or small pet cages, like hamsters & guinea pigs. Clean!
No living thing in your home should leave a continual lingering smell... humans, pets, plants. If they do, the adults need lessons in proper hygiene.
I was raised with lots of pets. My mom bred dogs (Yorkshire Terriers), and we always had assorted cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, whatever. My mom was always a good example of keeping the pets and house clean. She was a cleaning fanatic. That woman cleaned the hardwood floors in our two-story house on her hands and knees EVERY DAY. (I'm not that fanatical, but I am still a clean freak.) She also obsessed over keeping our dogs and other pets clean because she bred long-haired show dogs, so of course, grooming was essential.
When I wanted a new pet (I was totally animal-crazy), I was pretty much allowed to have it, but I was also taught from very young that it was my responsibility to feed and clean up after it. And when my mom said it was my responsibility to clean up after it, she meant to HER standards.
When my mom was still in the business of breeding show dogs, we would visit other breeders' homes for various things -- using their stud services, buying a puppy, whatever. They mostly all lived in impressive homes, and the majority of them were spotless as well.
Some people just don't clean. There are many nasty houses out there that don't have any pets living in them. It's just that houses can become much nastier much faster if there are pets in the house when there isn't anyone cleaning properly.
I don't understand why anyone would list a house in that condition.
Like they say in the car industry, "There's a butt for every seat."
There is a buyer for every property.
Another truism: "Price fixes all deficiencies." I.e., cut price in recognition of negative conditions of the property.
What the OP's neighbor apparently has not done:
1. Recognized the deficiency.
2. Cured the deficiency, or,
3. Priced to "fix" the deficiency.
We get paid to move property on "price and terms acceptable to seller." Success hinges on agreement between agent and seller on condition and likely sales prices.
I would list almost any house in almost any condition if the seller is realistic, or "near-realistic." But sometimes the agent has to walk away.
Last edited by MikeJaquish; 08-18-2018 at 05:58 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
