Showing In The Dog House

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We’ve all seen the showing instructions on the Multiple Listing Service:

“Fido, the family dog, is friendly.  He might lick you, but he won’t bite.”

OK, that’s reassuring. So you and your clients get to the front door and hear the welcoming bark – or is this the bark usually reserved for the mailman?  Or burglars?  It’s hard to tell.

But you’re armed with doggy treats, and you know his name, so you turnthe key and open the door.  And the dog is, indeed, friendly.

He’s humping your leg!

“Down, Fido!  Stop that!  No!  We’ve just met and I don’t do that sort of thing on the first date!

“Yikes!

A favorite chapter in The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate is “YourFamily Calls Him “Fido”;  Your Agent Calls Him “Fang.”  And it talksabout things most agents are uncomfortable discussing with theirclients.  While a dog, any size, any breed, or any age, can be a huge obstacle to selling your home, a smart agent appreciates the puppy is a beloved family member.  If they want the listing, they will want to be very careful about how they communicate to you the challenges of selling with Fido in residence.

Agents, even those who are dog people, are usually reluctant to enter a house where the owners are not home, but the dog is.  Your sweet puppy earns his Purina by warding off intruders, and we’re right up there with the UPS guy, only worse!  We come inside the house!

I’ve been bitten.  She was a tiny little thing that lived in one of my listings, and I thought that dog was my friend. Then out of the blue, she bit my hand, and for a minute I thought I might never play the flute again.

If I ever sell my house, Wilie the hyper-active-Labradoodle-puppy willgo live with my sister and her Dog Whisperer boyfriend between the time the sign goes in the ground and the day the home-inspection contingency is removed.  I don’t want to put the dog or my colleagues and their clients through the distraction – he’s so cute they won’t pay attention to the house! Or he’ll hump their legs and they won’t be able to pay attention to the house!

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