I often open up homes and sometimes the first thing I smell when I open up a door is pet odor. Fo most of us, we are pet lovers. They’re not just our pets, but part of our family.
But pets, as much as we love them, put off an odor that we don’t notice because our nose gets so familiar to it. But people in our home that are unfamiliar will notice it!
I really find this common in homes that have a lot of carpeting, and maybe that have a lot of long-haired pets, or the home has been closed up for a long period of time.
It’s important to discuss, because odor can be a real turnoff for a buyer when they walk in.
I know it’s hard to believe, but not everybody owns a pet, and they sure don’t want smell a pet they never owned. I’d like to give you a couple of tips of what to do about that to try to remove pet odor when selling your home.
Getting Rid of Pet Odor By Neutralizing
First of all, now we’re into spring, great time to have the windows and doors open to air out your home. I have a steam cleaner that I use for all of my tile and hard floors, and I also have a steam cleaner for my carpets that is especially for pet odors.
Try those two things too to see if you can neutralize that odor, and then let it dry really well. Have one of your good friends that’ll be honest with you come over there and do the “sniff test”, and see if it still smells like pet or not.
If it does, then you may have to be looking at a little more expensive option, mainly pulling that carpet and the pad out and replacing it.
In severe cases where there have been homes where the dogs or pets have urinated and it’s gotten into the subfloor, you may have to use vinegar or an odor-neutralizing product to try and get rid of that.
Same thing if you’ve got wood floors. You might have to pull those things up.
Keep Pets Off Of Furniture
Now, you know we love our pets, and our pets love being in our lives, and sometimes they think that they just are like us and they should be able to get on the couches and our beds and all of that.
Well, you know what? Their dander also gets in those fabrics, and those fabrics hold onto that, and then they begin to smell
So you might want to take your curtains and drapes down and have them laundered, steam cleaned, or dry cleaned. Your furniture or upholstered furniture, have that steam cleaned to help get that pet odor out of there too.
These are just some things that you only get that first chance at that first impression, so you want make it your best, so make sure that it smells pet-free.
