Myself and the OH were planning to try and sell our house later this year (autumn time) but we had a leaflet put through our letterbox saying there were people interested in buying on our street. So we contacted the agent and they are coming to do a valuation... it's slightly ahead of our schedule and now I'm wondering about all our cat stuff!
If you've sold a house/moved recently have you tidied away some or any of your cat things to improve first impressions? And if you did tidy things away how did your cats react?
When you've had viewings have you tried to keep the cats in one area of the house?
I'm not sure we can tidy much away to be honest (there's no hiding a cat wheel!) - but interested to hear other people's experiences because someone I know asked me if I would and, well, tbh I hadn't really considered I would need to!
I sold my flat just over 3yrs ago & at the time had 2 cats & a dog. Everything was put away except bowls & beds (& I made sure they were clean & looked presentable).
It was difficult keeping everything looking nice & uncluttered. I also told the estate agent to be completely honest with me regarding the pets; was there too much hair everywhere (I seemed to be forever hoovering) & if there was any dog/litter tray smells.
I think you have to be realistic, pet stuff everywhere may not bother some people but it would others. The couple who bought my place definitely weren't animal people. You need to make sure your house is appealing to the majority so when you do come to sell make sure everything is cleared away & if you don't have enough storage then get family/friends to help you out.
Luckily my flat wasn't on the market that long & sold to the second viewer so we could then revert to be messy again! I look back at the pics in Rightmove & can't believe how lovely it looked
I don't think it's that much different than trying to sell when you have children - you just have to keep the clutter down. We last sold a house 4 years ago and only had Mai Tai and our moggy Gizmo at the time so there wasn't too much to tidy. I made sure litter trays were clean and unobtrusive, food bowls cleared away and toys tidied before any viewings.
Oh, we did keep Mai Tai in the conservatory during viewings and made the agent very aware that she was an indoor cat and I would kill him if she escaped
I think the main thing when selling a house is keep everything tidy and clutter free. When we sold our last house..we had 2 dogs, 2 cats and 3 kids. But everything has a place..i.e toy boxes for kids and pets! Vacuum and dust before viewers come...clean bathrooms, loos and sinks. Make beds. Try and air your house too. Also plug ins if your house smells of pets.
I would be wary of that leaflet... Was it from an estate agent? Suggest you talk to some more in your area. And when I view houses I think that plug-ins mean there is something nasty to hide.
Selling kittens is different to selling a house, but I found keeping mine extra-clean & tidy when prospective slaves were visiting, and then collecting, quite a strain!
I've been put off buying a flat that smelled strongly of cat wee. I think I'd probably put my larger cat tree into storage and hide the scrattier looking beds. Make sure curtains are de-fluffed etc
I also told the estate agent to be completely honest with me regarding the pets; was there too much hair everywhere (I seemed to be forever hoovering) & if there was any dog/litter tray smells.
It was from an estate agent, and yes we're being wary. We're using this more as a gauge of what our house may be worth than a put it on the market straight away. We bought our house back when properties were rising at silly rates and we're not really sure if the area has got back to the same level. We called them on a spur of the moment thing but hoping to use it as a catalyst to sort out the house for sale.
I've been put off buying a flat that smelled strongly of cat wee. I think I'd probably put my larger cat tree into storage and hide the scrattier looking beds. Make sure curtains are de-fluffed etc
We've been put off for the same reason, I hope ours doesn't smell at all... though I imagine we get immune to how our house smells.
And after casting a critical eye over our house yesterday we've decided to put away half the cat beds... we have three cats and 15 cat beds/blankets out so it seems a touch unnecessary!
We did it last year!
I put all dcruffy beds in the loft leaving cat tree and best bed out only.
Tidied the toys up and put things like catit circuit away.
One of our estate agent photos actually had Ruxpin in the picture! I didn't notice at the time!
Good luck!
Our landlord was selling the property we were renting with Luna (we've since moved) and the estate agent removed our cat furniture to take the photos. We kept her toys away for viewings and generally kept everything clean and tidy. I don't imagine a property smells of cat wee unless your not changing thd litter tray enough! It can smell of general cat though, a can of Febreze on furniture helps.
I am in the same situation. We'll putting the house on the market next month and have a half dozen cat trees to hide away . It'll have to be done though.
When people view your home, they are not buying a house. They are buying your lifestyle. So unless you are lucky enough to get cat slaves viewing, most buyers will not be able to mentally de-clutter your home of cat stuff. When they discuss their short list yours will will be "that house that was full of cats".
I have no idea how I am going to hide this monster though....
Well we were selling with our dog around in 2012 and also buying, we viewed a lot of houses with cats in. With the dog we made sure all his stuff was tidied away for photos and for viewings, some people are very anti-pet so the house has to look like no animal lives in it, ideally.
When we viewed houses with cats, the cats were usually left in the house (one was very very very friendly and adorable! The estate agent roughly pushed her off the kitchen counter though when I was petting her and he was trying to "sales talk" me...I gave him a real mouthful for that ) On that vein be as sure as possible that your estate agent is going to be nice to your cats if they're left in with viewers, others were trying to chase them out of the room and such. Or take your cats out on harnesses/in the carrier. I will note that in all the cat-houses we saw, we never saw a litterbox. Crazy! I guess they were packed into a cupboard or something?
If I were doing it again myself now, I would put all the cat toys into a toybox/into storage and the cat litter box in storage for the duration of the viewing and take the cats out with me for the hour that's needed. I'd put the cat tree in storage or the attic, depending what you have available. Then just pull it all back out when the viewing's done. Unfortunately the sales time is just constant cleaning and preening, it comes with the territory. :/
I am in the same situation. We'll putting the house on the market next month and have a half dozen cat trees to hide away . It'll have to be done though.
When people view your home, they are not buying a house. They are buying your lifestyle. So unless you are lucky enough to get cat slaves viewing, most buyers will not be able to mentally de-clutter your home of cat stuff. When they discuss their short list yours will will be "that house that was full of cats".
I have no idea how I am going to hide this monster though....
Wouldn't put me off buying your house..I would make an offer on the basis that the cats would be included in the sale! Your cats are gorgeous! :001_wub:
I'm in the process of selling my house now and have a very old cat (Spook)and 3 litter trays! About 20 mins before a viewing I hide all the litter trays in a cupboard under the stairs and open all the windows to get rid of any smell! I insist on being in the house whenever anyone is being shown around by the agent and as long as the weather is ok, put Spook out into the back garden. If the weather is bad I put him in one of the bedrooms with a litter tray and water and keep my fingers crossed that he doesn't poo :laugh:
As long as your house doesn't smell of cat pee, I really don't think it bothers most people! Your house is the main concern for any potential buyers! Good luck!
I would have serious difficulties selling my house, my cat run covers the ENTIRE garden and there are just far too many trees and beds to hide for viewings
My OH and I have said we'd have to show them a picture of what the garden used to look like :lol: :lol: :lol:
We just sold our house and have 3 dogs and 3 cats. To be honest, it wasn't fun balancing the viewings with the animals. I had to take the dogs out for a walk every time we had a viewing because they would just bark at the people. The cats aren't any trouble and just resumed their regular positions on the beds/sofa!
If it's any consolation, I don't think the presence of a couple of cats is particularly 'offensive' even to a non-animal person as they are not in-your-face like dogs are. However, I completely agree with removing as much of the animal paraphernalia as possible. We moved all the dog beds and gear outside into the shed so it was out of the way. If you clean really thoroughly, with all the animal stuff out of the way, it gives the magical illusion that you don't have animals (provided they don't look closely and see the scratch marks all over the doors/furniture ).
Oh I'm dreading this - we're going through similar, except we're the ones buying and we're moving from rented accommodation. I'm not entirely sure how that works, if they start trying to show people around as soon as we serve our notice? Or if they wait 'til we leave because they're going to want to fix the place up.. and they will
Either way, can you request to be in for viewings or do they have the right to come around whenever? I have no idea what we'd do with our indoor cats
^. Check your lease. When I was in the same situation the landlord had absolutely no right to show the flat, in my absence or otherwise, without my express permission.
Oh I'm dreading this - we're going through similar, except we're the ones buying and we're moving from rented accommodation. I'm not entirely sure how that works, if they start trying to show people around as soon as we serve our notice? Or if they wait 'til we leave because they're going to want to fix the place up.. and they will
Either way, can you request to be in for viewings or do they have the right to come around whenever? I have no idea what we'd do with our indoor cats
I have recent experience of this, and I wasn't actually allowed to have cats in my last rented flat so it was particularly challenging! Silver lining was, my agents did such regular inspections (every three months!) that I had figured out a good routine for hiding all of the cat stuff.
Bottom line is, they will expect to do viewings soon after you give your notice. It is almost certainly in your contract (read it carefully) that you are obliged to allow them to show prospective tennants around within a certain period (probably about a month) before you leave. However, there will also be a clause about you not being disturbed unless it is an emergency, which of course a viewing is not. This clause will say something about unnecessary disturbance and/or your right to privacy in your accomodation, and it entitles you to at least twenty four hours notice before they do a viewing/do an inspection/send workmen in. They're not allowed to just let themselves in whenever they want without telling you, but they may assume that posting a letter or leaving an answerphone message is enough and not wait for your confirmation. You can be stubborn and put them off once or twice, but save this tactic for when you really need to put them off cause their patience wears thin and you need strong excuses, since they are keen to move a new tennant in straight away with the smallest gap, even if there is damage. Demand for rental accomodation is so great now, they will find a new tennant, probably without fixing anything.
BUT you're buying your next home so you don't need to worry about their reference, right? If I were in your situation, I would be really stubborn and just keep making excuses. (You may have guessed that I don't like agents. They are especially mean to pet owners.)
Hope this helps somewhat. It will be okay if you plan things, like what cat stuff to hide and where. Know your contract well, and decide what approach to take with the agents. Not long now until you have a home which you may cattify as much as you please
We've been here for 4 years and 4 cats has taken some heavy toll on the carpets mainly, most of the upstairs rooms are mouldy and the windows are falling apart (which they never do anything about, can't wait to get out!) so I really don't think they'd want to show anyone around as it is.. When we moved in it had been empty for about a month as apparently the previous owners left it in a state.. I'm now just thinking it was probably the same as it is for us and they had to repaint to cover up the mould because there's no way that that hasn't surfaced before!
We were hoping that with two months notice we can move out at the end of month one, take the cats and then use the remaining month to sort this house out to see what (if any) of our deposit we can get back.. Then they can come and go as they please with viewings without me worrying they'll let the cats free!
Been a really busy week here.. but thought I would update
Had estate agents out this week to give us a valuation, we ended up getting three out and asking them various questions about the cats and all their 'stuff' none of them thought it would be a problem, just recommended hiding litter trays. :thumbup: It probably helped that we stuffed lots of stuff in corners and cupboards so that cat stuff wasn't everywhere!
All of them wanted to see the cats running on the cat wheel... and fortunately Darcy was very accommodating with them
Not sure if we will actually sell though, valuations were OK, but showing estate agents around reminded me and the OH why we love the house!
We finally did put our flat on the market last week. We chucked out half a dozen cat towers; just kept the best ones and placed them less obtrusively. Prior to viewings: toys in a box, litter trays in the garage and elimination any trace of cat hair from every surface in the house.
The estate agent, when asked, said that with all that house-keeping done the presence of the cats would actually be a positive in his experience because they create a talking point that relaxes the buyer.
We finally did put our flat on the market last week. We chucked out half a dozen cat towers; just kept the best ones and placed them less obtrusively. Prior to viewings: toys in a box, litter trays in the garage and elimination any trace of cat hair from every surface in the house.
The estate agent, when asked, said that with all that house-keeping done the presence of the cats would actually be a positive in his experience because they create a talking point that relaxes the buyer.
We haven't put our house on the market yet... been a very busy time for us as I just started a new job and my OH has had a lot of weekend work over the last few weeks so we're still in limbo with house selling. It's nice to hear that your estate agent thinks the cats will be a talking point - hoping that can be the same with us when we finally put the house on the market. We just need to have life calm down a little bit first as I'm just too tired at the moment to consider selling the house!
We just recently sold our house (Moving this week actually) I put the cats in their room when I was getting the house ready for viewings. Then when the actual viewings were on, I put them in their carriers and brought them with me. I didn't want to risk someone accidentally letting them outside! My cats have their own room with everything they need in it, but for viewings I put all of their toys in a box and put it away. I also put their bowls away. I only left out their cat trees and their beds, but I just tidied them into a corner so it would look better! At the end of the day, anyone buying your house is more than likely going to do it up themselves so a few cat things here and there shouldn't matter. Most people buy for the house itself and the location, not for what's inside it. Good Luck with selling :biggrin5:
I am in the same situation. We'll putting the house on the market next month and have a half dozen cat trees to hide away . It'll have to be done though.
When people view your home, they are not buying a house. They are buying your lifestyle. So unless you are lucky enough to get cat slaves viewing, most buyers will not be able to mentally de-clutter your home of cat stuff. When they discuss their short list yours will will be "that house that was full of cats".
I have no idea how I am going to hide this monster though....
Would that not be described as an ornamental fireplace
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