According to a recent survey, over 47% of American households include at least one dog. If you are like a lot of homeowners, you might not realize what kind of impact “Ranger” has on the sell price of your house. Let’s take a look at some of the side effects owning a dog has on your sell price.
Preparing Your Home
This isn’t feasible for a lot of people, but if you have the means to keep your dog away from your home during the selling process you’ll be one step ahead of your competition. Consider letting your dog stay with a relative or friend, or put it in a kennel during showings. At the very least consider keeping your dog outside when potential buyers are checking out your house. Potential buyers may also be dog owners, but they don’t want to know about yours.
Odor
The unseen damage of dog odor to a house is one of the most common complaints when it comes to home buyers. Chances are you have become “nose blind” to your pets odor over time, and thus you don’t notice the smell that has embedded itself in the carpets, drapes, and furniture. Performing a deep clean on your home along with using air fresheners can help keep the dog smell out.
Physical Damage
The physical damage to your house from a dog is much easier to detect, although it can be missed if not careful. Be sure to go through your house with a fine tooth comb and take note of things like chew marks on trim work, doors, steps, etc as well as scratches on hardwood floors, doors, and walls. You may need to invest in refinishing your floors or replacing some wood work in order to get the maximum offer for your house.
Outside
One often overlooked area when it comes to erasing the effects of your dog is the outside area. Be sure to fill in holes that have been dug and replace shrubs or flowers that may have been damaged from your dog. Don’t forget to look for yellowish spots in the grass that could be caused from your dog’s urine. You’ll want to treat these areas with a grass growing agent formulated for this specific problem.
Even though dogs do cause some negative things to happen to your house over time, there’s no reason why you can’t have your friendly companion and get the maximum offer for your house. With a little extra time and effort put into the home preparation, you’ll be well on your way to a great offer.