Kitsap County Real Estate Agent Kathy Olsen

Selling Your House when You Have Pets
Series 1.1

With my background in professional dog training, people have been asking me what to do with their pets while their houses are for sale. I've written this blog so that people have a resource to get them started on the proper training for their homes. In faster moving markets, it was practical to send your pets to Aunt Sally's farm until the house was sold. Houses are sitting on the market for much longer these days, and sending your pets away isn't always practical or economical.

Something horrible happens to your animals when your house is for sale...a nasty little five letter word: STRESS.

Everything that you do in preparing your pets for a move should be done to reduce stress. When pets experience stress, two separate hormones are produced. The first, cortizol, can be detected by increased itchy skin and some dandruff. Cortizol takes quite a while for the pets' body to metabolize, sometimes weeks or months. The second hormone is adrenalin, the fight or flight response hormone. This hormone is metabolized in a matter of days. The problem comes when the house is shown every few days and the pets never have a chance for their stress hormones to return to base level.

As soon as you know that your house will need to hit the market, brainstorm ways to control the stress levels in your pets while your house is being shown. This will be different for dogs and cats. I'll talk about cats first.

The first step in controlling your cat's stress level is to make a journal of what your cat does during the day. When do they eat, and how much? When and where do they sleep? How frequently do they need the litter box? Are they friendly to visitors, or not? If you don't know what normal behavior is for your cat, how can you recognize stress?

Once you know your cat's routine, try to schedule home showings around the routine as much as possible. If your cat is used to eating at 5pm, and you have a home viewing at 5:15, will your cat miss a meal, or will Fluffy be doing her post-dinner constitutional as the potential buyers are walking through? Nap time home viewings are best for cats. If your cat is an escape artist, place a sign on your door politely asking buyers and their agents to please keep Fluffy inside.

Get your cat used to being in a crate. You will need one for your move. Your cat should be secured while the movers are packing up, while furniture is being unloaded from your home, and during your drive to your new home. You can make the crate a safe, familiar place to be by putting the food bowl inside the crate and feeding your kitty there every day. If your cat won't go in, place the food bowl near the crate door, then gradually move it to the back of the crate as your kitty gets more comfortable with going inside. If your cat has been inside the crate frequently, being in the crate won't increase the stress hormones mentioned earlier.

Once you can control the stress that your cat will feel about this move, you are ready to focus on getting the house ready. The next article will talk about getting your house in show condition.

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Comment Posted on "Selling Your House when You Have Pets 1.1"

1. Real Estate Celebrity
Posted December 24, 2010 4:49 AM

Your MLS search tools were very easy to use on your real estate website We will definitely visit again!

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Dog On It! Get that house sold!
by Kathy Olsen