Is Your Home Going To The Dogs (Or Cats)?

We’re going to the dogs in this next installment with ideas to make your residence as attractive as possible to potential buyers looking for their new dream home in 2016.

It seems like in recent months, pet-friendly amenities have captured the blue ribbon for getting your home sold (or property leased) at Greyhound speed! Our friends at the Urban Land Institute say this trend took off as real estate recovered from the Great Recession.

Back in August 2014, Jeffrey Spivak reported that developers and market observers seeing a new wave of multifamily projects started to cater to populist lifestyles offering more social and communal amenities like craft rooms, gardens, and pet spaces.

In a more recent San Antonio blog, Micah Harper noted that in 2013, Americans spent $55 billion on their “fur kids,” and the American Pet Products Association  says 65 percent of Americans now own pets. For the same period, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports 5,090,429 new and existing homes being sold.

The number of pet-owning Americans and the number of home buying Americans likely overlap quite a bit, Harper observed, adding that basic catteries and dog runs are two more common pet amenities trending as of late.

Around the same time, Washington Post writer Camilla McLaughlin reported how Standard Pacific offered pet rooms as an option at a new community in Brea, Calif.. McLaughlin says prospective buyers and their pets lined up for the grand opening – and since then, Standard Pacific has expanded such rooms and other pet amenities to all 27 of its communities.

In the Big Apple, dogster.com blogger Whitney C. Harris says Chelsea’s Abington House launched its own Dog City, a full-service daycare and spa amenity created by Related Companies in partnership with canine expert Leya Ogihara.This is intended to serve a whopping one-third of building residents, all who are dog owners, according to Harris. In Chicago, Harris says the trendy 500 Lake Shore Drive has its own Dog City, and she even found Blue Apartments in Minneapolis, which provides amenities like outdoor areas and dog-washing stations.

Reprinted with permission from RISMedia. ©2016. All rights reserved.

So, what could you do to make your home more attractive to dog owners?

• 1Make sure your fenced yard is in tact.  Does the gate lock securely?  Are the boards in good shape?  Are there spaces where  a smaller dog could easily slip under the fence?
•  Do you have a mud room that could be a safe ” doggie room” during the day? Point it out by “staging” it with a pretty dog bed, or doggie toys,  or a cute cat tree.

 

• Include maps to local dog parks, or talk about walking the dog in your neighborhood in an informational letter.

 

• Provide a list of your preferred vets, and groomers.
• Provide a list of your favorite dog or cat hotels or day cares.

By showing buyers that you care about their animals you are standing out to the buyers that are really concerned about finding a home for their “furry kids”!