What to do with pets when selling a house

Get the pets out of the house for showings if you possibly can. That is the whole answer, and everything below is what to do when you cannot.

The part sellers do not see is that animals cost them showings. Not dramatically, and not visibly. Agents quietly book something else instead, and nobody ever tells you.

Why it costs you showings

Several small reasons that add up.

Some buyers are allergic, some are frightened of dogs, and some simply will not tour a house with an animal loose in it. Agents know this, so a listing with complicated pet instructions gets skipped when there are five others to see that afternoon.

Then there is the practical friction. An agent who has to catch a cat before opening a door, or who is worried a dog will get out, is not showing your house well. They are managing a situation, and their buyer is watching them do it instead of looking at the kitchen.

The order of preference

Out of the house entirely. A friend, family, daycare, a walk timed to the showing. This is the version that costs you nothing.

Crated, with clear instructions. Workable, and it needs to be genuinely clear: where the crate is, that the animal stays in it, and what the agent should do.

Confined to one room with a sign on the door. Less good, because somebody always opens the door.

Loose, with a note. The version that loses showings.

If you have a dog that cannot be crated or moved, say so plainly in the listing instructions rather than hoping. An agent who knows in advance can prepare their buyer. An agent surprised by it at the door is already behind.

Where the instructions actually go

This is the part people get wrong, and it is the point of the video.

A note taped to the front door is too late — the agent is already opening it with a buyer standing there. A note in the kitchen is too late for the same reason.

Instructions belong in the showing system, where the agent reads them when they book, and again in the lockbox note if your system supports it. That is before they arrive, which is the only useful time.

Then a short reminder at the entry, so a second agent who did not read anything still knows.

The smell, which nobody will tell you about

Your nose adapts to your own house within minutes of walking in. Everyone else’s does not.

Pet odor is one of the most common reasons a house reads as tired, and it is almost always invisible to the person living there. If you have animals, assume there is a smell and deal with it rather than deciding there is not.

Carpets, soft furnishings, and anywhere an animal sleeps. Clean them properly before photographs, not before the first showing. And ask somebody honest — genuinely honest — to walk in and tell you.

Smell is one of the main reasons a house reads as tired, and it is the one people are least willing to name out loud.

The visible stuff

Bowls, beds, litter trays, toys, the gate across the stairs, the scratched door frame, the worn patch of lawn where a dog patrols the fence.

None of that is damage exactly. All of it tells a buyer the house has had animals in it, which makes them look harder for the things they are worried about. Put as much of it away as you reasonably can for photographs and showings, which is the same discipline staging asks of you more generally.

The lawn is worth a specific mention because it photographs badly and it is fixable with a few weeks of notice.

Timing the showings around an animal

If moving the pet out is the plan, the logistics are the thing that breaks it.

Most showing requests arrive with little notice, and a seller who needs two hours to arrange the dog will decline or delay enough of them that it shows up in the numbers. So set the plan up before you list rather than solving it each time.

What works: a neighbor or family member who is genuinely available on short notice, a daycare you have already enrolled with, or a standing block of hours each day when the animal is out anyway and showings are easy.

What does not work: deciding case by case. That is how a seller ends up with restricted hours, and restricted hours quietly cost more showings than the pet ever would have.

What I actually see

Sellers who are certain their dog is lovely and will not bother anyone. The dog usually is lovely. That is not the issue.

The issue is that the buyer touring at two o’clock has a child who is frightened of dogs, and they spend the whole showing managing that instead of imagining their furniture in the room. You lose the showing without ever knowing there was one to lose.

The other pattern is the litter tray in the utility room that the seller genuinely cannot smell. Every single buyer can.

If you are the buyer

Two things worth knowing.

A house that has had pets is not a problem by default. What you are checking for is damage and odor rather than the fact of an animal: subfloor under carpet in the worst room, scratched doors, and whether the smell changes when the house warms up.

And if you have allergies, say so to your agent before touring rather than discovering it in somebody’s living room.

The one that is a real disclosure

If an animal has damaged something — flooring, subfloor, a door, the yard — that is a condition, not a cosmetic preference, and it belongs in your disclosures.

What a seller has to disclose in Utah covers the standard. A friendly note about the dog is not a substitute for disclosing damage the dog caused.

What to do next

Before you list, make a pet plan for showings and write it into the showing instructions rather than onto the front door. Then have somebody honest tell you what the house smells like.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and I would much rather plan around your animals than lose you showings nobody told you about. Tell me what you are working with and we will build it into the listing from the start.

Note: General guidance on showing practice. Any damage caused by animals is a property condition and should be handled through your formal disclosures rather than informally.