Do you believe that a house isn’t a home without a cat? Well, the potential buyers who view your listing may or may not agree. Regardless, when you have a home to sell that is also home to cats, it’s in your best interest to minimize any sign of them. Staging can help.
I’m a professional home stager in Calgary with a deep love for kitties. I have my own fur clan and also happily cat sit for my friends. Here’s my new fur friend!
However, when I work with clients to prepare a home to sell, pets of any kind must always be addressed. My job is to work with clients to accommodate their lifestyle AND make their property the most appealing so it will get SOLD.
For most buyers, what’s NOT appealing is cat hair, odour, and paraphernalia evident throughout a house they are considering making their own.
So here are a few staging tips for my fellow cat lovers who are preparing a home to sell:
- Litter box: Keep it clean, refresh litter more often than usual, and tuck it away somewhere not easily seen. Avoid strong smelling brands.
- Odour: The truth is that we get used to our own smells. Ask someone you trust to walk through the house and give you an honest smell report. Plain old vinegar and water are ideal for a scrub down or spritz in every room and on most surfaces.
- Designate a space: You don’t want to totally disrupt your cat’s lifestyle while you’re listing your home to sell. Choose one small space to locate the bed and a couple toys.
- Hair & allergens: It goes without saying that your home should get a thorough vacuuming to remove all cat hair before a showing. But you might also want to reduce allergens by running a HEPA filter daily and regularly washing any fabric items that you can (like curtains, throw pillow covers, sofa covers).
As a professional home stager, I aim to ease your stress during the moving process. Remember, pets can experience stress too. So if your fur friend is sensitive to a changing environment and strangers coming into the space, make sure to create a special comfort zone in advance (like a carrier with a cozy blanket inside) that s/he can escape to in order to ease the stress during the listing period.
Still have questions about how a professional stager can help when you have a Calgary home to sell? Let’s chat. Contact me, Elysse Bulloch at Simply Stylish Staging, today