Selling Your Home? Here's How to Eliminate All Traces of Your Pet

When potential buyers go house-shopping, they always have a whole list of things that can break a deal — and that’s before they ever step inside the front door. Many home shoppers are completely turned off by a pet from a previous owner. They walk in and smell the odor of your cat or dog, and they immediately turn their noses up at the entire house. Here’s how to eliminate all traces that you ever had a pet in your home, and those picky home shoppers won’t be able to find anything to complain about, presented by the Limitless Realty Group.

Hide the Accessories… and the Pets

As much as you love your pets, potential homebuyers just don’t, according to The Balance. Make sure you get as much money as you can out of your sale by hiding all traces of your pets — which may involve removing your pets completely from the house during the showing. The main thing you want to hide is your litter box, if you’ve got one. Don’t put it in the laundry room, the bathroom or any of your closets, because these spaces will definitely be checked out by home shoppers. Put the litter box under your bed, and keep it clean so there’s absolutely no smell when potential buyers are looking around the house.

Put their food and water bowls, toys, beds and climbing equipment away, too. Tuck these items inside drawers, behind furniture, wherever you can possibly hide it, but keep it out of sight so potential buyers never even know about it.

Don’t Forget the Details

If you’ve got pictures of your pets around the house, you’re going to want to hide these as well. According to Buyers Ask, potential buyers can spot these photos quickly and sink your ship before you know it. Tuck away your leashes, collars and cute doggie clothes, and do your level best to keep the actual pets out of sight while people are scouting out your home, too.

Deep-Cleaning for Odor Removal

Machine-wash all your window treatments, bedding and any other fabrics that can be washed. You’ve lived with your pets for years and you’re probably immune to the odors they create, but potential buyers will pick up errant pet scents immediately. So even if you don’t smell anything, give your home a thorough deep-cleaning to remove those hard-to-detect odors. Wash all your home fabrics as usual, but add a box of baking soda to the mix. According to the Humane Society, this will eliminate those pet odors completely.

For your upholstery and carpeting, get a carpet cleaner. If you don’t already own one, no problem; you can rent carpet cleaners from the grocery store. Get a pet odor neutralizer, and follow the instructions to add it to the cleaning solution. Don’t use steam cleaners! Heat can make pet stains permanently set into fabrics, which is the last thing you want. You don’t want to use strong chemical cleaners, either. This will actually encourage pets to use the bathroom where the chemicals have been applied and that defeats the whole purpose of your deep cleaning.

For your counters, cabinets, walls, doors and baseboards, make your own natural cleaning agent to kill lingering pet odors. Mix two cups of water with one cup of distilled white vinegar. Next, add 10 drops of your favorite scent lavender, rosemary and any essential oil you like. Put this into a spray bottle, and use it anywhere to clean everything.

Pet-Eliminating Staging

Stage your home the right way, and potential buyers won’t ever know you had a pet. That way, they won’t have a reason to complain or demand a lower buying price for your property. It takes some extra work to stage your home in a way that hides the existence of your pets, but in the end it’s worth it. Eliminate signs of your pets, and you’ll get more interested buyers who can’t find a reason to negotiate their way into paying less money than you want to get.

If you need a team of dedicated real estate professionals on your side, look no further than the Limitless Realty Group. If you’re thinking of buying or selling, contact us today at (210) 960-3381 or email us at solutions@limitless.realestate.

Photo credit: Pexels.com