How to sell your house when it is owned by guinea pigs?

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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I am going to be trying to sell my house in the the next few months, we want to upgrade to somewhere with more space for the guinea pigs, a nice lawn for the guinea pigs, less outside city noise for the guinea pigs... a spare room just to store piggy supplies... but I am aware that there are some total weirdos out there in the house buying market who may think that 8 guinea pigs occupying the master bedroom which actually has no bed just guinea pigs, and hay and poop everywhere, are not the best selling points?
Has anyone any tips for how to market a home which is ruled by 8 spoilt guinea pigs, to best advantage, so we can buy a much bigger house that might fit even more guinea pigs in...? Has anyone done this before...?
The piggies are sending me to view several properties for them this weekend, where they could have their own entire house floor as a massive loft conversion room, plus lawns and vegetable plots outside... but we need to sell our house first!
 
The best option would be to buy the new house first and move the piggies in then clean and redecorate our current house to get the best price but that might stretch the budget so far that it consumes the vet fund... always expecting the worst, and being responsible for 4k+ vet bill Blodwen, I do now after 5 years of over-saving for the piggies vet bills have a house deposit saved in the vet fund lol... but what if we spend it then somepig gets ill? Blod and her pals may need to promise not to get sicker than my credit card limit for a couple of months...
But there could be 20k difference in my house value if it is show-home clean and redecorated, vs smells of piggies with grimey walls because I dont want to expose my piggies to harsh cleaning products and paint fumes...
Aren't we lucky though having this as a decision- its a total spoilt middle-class rant- as someone who started life on a council estate it blows my mind we ever got this far to be discussing whether we want 3 or 4 bedrooms and telling estate agents we want a downstairs loo lol :)
 
We had a similar dilemma when we sold our place in the UK.
It was a tiny terrace house, and we had 4 large greyhounds living there.
The living room was so taken over with dog beds that we only had a single seater sofa - the rest of the sofa had been moved out to accommodate even more dog beds!

So basically people walked straight into a living room that was just a sea of dog beds with a single chair in the middle.
It wasn't a great first impression, although we were very clear that viewings could only take place on certain days at specific times (I think we did 2 Sunday's a month). I would drop the dogs 9and their bed collection) at a friends, and then blitz the entire downstairs area to attempt to make it look reasonable - as reasonable as a living room with one chair can look anyway.

This quickly became tedious and I can't even imagine how you would manage it with piggies, so we opted to do what you are considering and moved out, had the whole place professionally cleaned and sold it then.

Exciting times for you and the piggies.
 
Swissgreys said:
We had a similar dilemma when we sold our place in the UK.
It was a tiny terrace house, and we had 4 large greyhounds living there.
The living room was so taken over with dog beds that we only had a single seater sofa - the rest of the sofa had been moved out to accommodate even more dog beds!

So basically people walked straight into a living room that was just a sea of dog beds with a single chair in the middle.
It wasn't a great first impression, although we were very clear that viewings could only take place on certain days at specific times (I think we did 2 Sunday's a month). I would drop the dogs 9and their bed collection) at a friends, and then blitz the entire downstairs area to attempt to make it look reasonable - as reasonable as a living room with one chair can look anyway.

This quickly became tedious and I can't even imagine how you would manage it with piggies, so we opted to do what you are considering and moved out, had the whole place professionally cleaned and sold it then.

Exciting times for you and the piggies.
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Glad we aren't the only ones who ever had this dilemma- yes we also have a small terrace house, 2 bedrooms and the larger bedroom is my home office and piggy room. We might move the piggies downstairs, but that doesnt really make things much better, they smell of piggies and throw poops and hay and fill a whole house room regardless of where they go!
I am hoping the bank sees my point of view about a temporary delay in selling to get the best price- rodent urine and faeces are strangely not on every house buyer's wish list lol :)
 
You might find more difficulty in obtaining a mortgage without yours selling too as it will be classed as a second property and obviously may miss out on more favourable LTV rates if the deposit you put down is less than the capital you would get from your house sale which could be more costly in the long run for you.

It might be worth speaking with 2-3 estate agents on their views, is there someone who could take on piggies and piggy stuff for a couple of days on two separate occasions? One to deep clean (and perhaps try and borrow some basic furniture) and have photos done to market the property and then ideally for an open house weekend so most of the viewings will be encouraged on a single day/weekend at the most and then you are more likely to get a better price for it.

Alternatively, you never know which current or future piggy lovers might end up viewing the property and see the potential of the piggy room
 
How does the piggy room look now?

We had a tiny house and toddlers when we sold and it was a case of trying to hide the fact we had kids by piling everything in the cars when we had viewings.

I think you can have a room that is turned over to them, people can imagine it being something else, it's just how they photograph to lure people in in the first instance. The rest though needs to be as clutter free as possible to make it look as spacious as possible. So the piggy supplies might need to go in the car...

I'm not sure that painting would make £20k difference unless it's really past it. A good sugar soap of what you can see (especially the paintwork) and some distracting soft furnishings can work wonders.

Our house was a bit sad when we sold but we fluffed it enough to sell it half a dozen times (fallen through sales, purchases, multiple offers on the same day etc) so it can be done. And I'm sure toddlers smell worse than pigs 😂
 
From personal experience trying to sell a property occupied by a large number of guinea pigs is very difficult. For some unknown reason many people are put off a property where there are animals living! I mean its not as if the guinea pigs are included in the sale! I think a lot of people lack the imagination to visualise a property looking any different to exactly how it is when viewing. Also a room full of piggies is a tad unexpected and is probably the overriding impression making it difficult to remember other details.
When I relocated here ( to be able to help my elderly mum) I also had 2 cats, they were not a problem. Before a viewing I would stuff all their possessions into the car and they would happily clear off themselves as were not keen on visitors. There was nothing I could do about the pigs tho, other than making sure they were as clean as possible. However, no one wanted to buy the house. After a while a property opposite came on the market and sold quickly and still I had no offers. The estate agents said it was because of the piggies. In the end I had to buy and move first, which with the help of family I was in the extremely fortunate position to be able to do.
If you are able, moving first may well be the best and quicker option.
If you have a good relationship with your vets and have obviously spent money with them over the years perhaps they would be willing to delay payment of any large, unexpected bills if you talk to them about your dilemma or could arrange for payment in small, affordable instalments, as it will only be a temporary situation.
 
;)Lol, when I was looking at property websites, though I wanted to move for my benefit not the piggies', I always looked first to see if there was a room for the pigs. In the end, our new house was a bit of a downgrade for them as they are now in an outbuilding, but needs must.

We were sure we would find it harder to sell ours with the pigs in one of the downstairs bedrooms with all their stuff and mess, so the pigs went to the boarders. They ended up being there 3 months because it took longer to find a buyer than we'd hoped (loads of viewers complained that it was overlooked to one side 🤐) but they survived the experience. Could you have your herd boarded for a few weeks while you have viewings etc?

Well done on saving the dosh for a deposit, sending humongous good luck wishes 🍀for selling your present pad and finding somewhere that suits the pigs - and you too ;)
 
How exciting.
Hope everything goes well with the house sale and you find something that will meet the needs of some very spoilt piggies who need a luxurious new home.
 
I think I am going to clean/repaint/declutter my house rooms systematically one at a time, then just get the house on the market.
It will definitely sell in any condition as there are a couple of buy-to-let landlords who already own 2 or 3 of houses in our street and tend to snap up any new to the market if they can get them cheap- that's the main difference with how the house presents, is the price a cynical landlord would pay vs an aspirational first time buyer professional couple!
There's no way I want to send the piggies to boarding, maybe we can compromise and just move them downstairs/ reduce the cage size for the duration of any viewings, to not appear like crazy people who let giant multicoloured rodents run their lives and have their own bedroom and are buying a bigger house so the rodent overlords can have an even bigger bedroom :)
 
PigglePuggle said:
I think I am going to clean/repaint/declutter my house rooms systematically one at a time, then just get the house on the market.
It will definitely sell in any condition as there are a couple of buy-to-let landlords who already own 2 or 3 of houses in our street and tend to snap up any new to the market if they can get them cheap- that's the main difference with how the house presents, is the price a cynical landlord would pay vs an aspirational first time buyer professional couple!
There's no way I want to send the piggies to boarding, maybe we can compromise and just move them downstairs/ reduce the cage size for the duration of any viewings, to not appear like crazy people who let giant multicoloured rodents run their lives and have their own bedroom and are buying a bigger house so the rodent overlords can have an even bigger bedroom :)
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The advantage of moving them downstairs is that you can clean and prep the downstairs first and take lots of pictures.
Then move the piggies down there, clean and prep the bedroom and photograph that.
That way none of the online pics have the piggies in them, so people will have a clear idea of the potential.
We also found it really helpful to agree in advance with the agent specific viewing days, so we could make a big effort the day before to clean and put everything in the car that we didin't want hanging around for the viewing. It was a good compromise, but limiting viewing days to once or twice a month also meant we didin't have to do this too often.
With better weather on the way it will be much easier to clean and air the house too if you are painting, etc.
 
Swissgreys said:
The advantage of moving them downstairs is that you can clean and prep the downstairs first and take lots of pictures.
Then move the piggies down there, clean and prep the bedroom and photograph that.
That way none of the online pics have the piggies in them, so people will have a clear idea of the potential.
We also found it really helpful to agree in advance with the agent specific viewing days, so we could make a big effort the day before to clean and put everything in the car that we didin't want hanging around for the viewing. It was a good compromise, but limiting viewing days to once or twice a month also meant we didin't have to do this too often.
With better weather on the way it will be much easier to clean and air the house too if you are painting, etc.
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Yes the better weather (and long summer holidays) for cleaning, painting, and airing off are definitely a driving factor for doing this now!
I've booked for us to go view 3 prospective new properties next week, all in the area we want and at the top, middle and lower end of our budget- that has inspired me to start scrubbing piggy pee off the walls and order some paint and rollers to get things moving, I think actually visualising where we could live will help focus our minds on all the dull bits :)
 
Hannah_xx said:
Exciting! I love house hunting!

I loved my house instantly when we viewed it..Mainly because I found a huge perfect room just for the piggies 🤣
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We are the same.
We chose our last house for the dogs and this house for the kids.
I keep telling DH the next one will just be for us.
 
PigglePuggle said:
Yes the better weather (and long summer holidays) for cleaning, painting, and airing off are definitely a driving factor for doing this now!
I've booked for us to go view 3 prospective new properties next week, all in the area we want and at the top, middle and lower end of our budget- that has inspired me to start scrubbing piggy pee off the walls and order some paint and rollers to get things moving, I think actually visualising where we could live will help focus our minds on all the dull bits :)
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Hope the house viewing goes well and you see something the piggies would approve.
If you need piggy boarding while actually moving that would motivate me to clear my study for you 😁
 
Merab's Slave said:
Hope the house viewing goes well and you see something the piggies would approve.
If you need piggy boarding while actually moving that would motivate me to clear my study for you 😁
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We are hoping to relocate to the other side of the Mersey @Merab's Slave so we might be nearer neighbours- possibly even with space for visitors and entertaining, once we are settled and buy some furniture that isnt just C&C cages, carrot cottages, fleecy tunnels, piggy castles etc!
 
Well I've booked an estate agent to take photos and do a valuation in 2 weeks time. So spent the day spring cleaning and refreshing the paintwork with my 28 year old daughter.
Brilliant day, apparently I am a lost cause when it comes to cleaning skirting boards and removing ceiling cobwebs, also I am hopelessly impatient and slap dash with decorating!
Nothing like having an adult child banish you from all cleaning and home improvement activities in your own home because they know best- I got told to cook burritos and buy chocolate biscuits then go sit outside and drink wine in the sunshine where I wouldnt get in the way! :)
 
How to get your daughter to clean your house and make it Estate Agent ready willingly:
  1. Make sure you don't clean the skirting boards
  2. Make sure you don't clean away cobwebs
  3. Make sure you do a rubbish job with the decorating
Voila! all sorted. Drinking wine in the sunshine while she does all the work sounds good to me!
 
PigglePuggle said:
Nothing like having an adult child banish you from all cleaning and home improvement activities in your own home because they know best- I got told to cook burritos and buy chocolate biscuits then go sit outside and drink wine in the sunshine where I wouldnt get in the way! :)
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Mmm, wine.
 
She's cleaned things I never even knew needed cleaning, and the bathroom walls and ceiling are completely re-painted, the inner window surrounds and window sills which I've never even looked at are all scrubbed and repainted in 3 rooms very precisely, the damp patch under the bay window which I usually hide with the shoe rack is scrubbed and primed with anti-mould base coat, my bedroom paintwork is touched up- once 3 rooms are done and aired off we can shuffle piggy supplies and piggies then do the other 3 rooms.

Quite happy to be declared most terrible at cleaning and decorating if that means it gets done for me :)
 
PigglePuggle said:
She's cleaned things I never even knew needed cleaning, and the bathroom walls and ceiling are completely re-painted, the inner window surrounds and window sills which I've never even looked at are all scrubbed and repainted in 3 rooms very precisely, the damp patch under the bay window which I usually hide with the shoe rack is scrubbed and primed with anti-mould base coat, my bedroom paintwork is touched up- once 3 rooms are done and aired off we can shuffle piggy supplies and piggies then do the other 3 rooms.

Quite happy to be declared most terrible at cleaning and decorating if that means it gets done for me :)
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Excellent job! You daughter has done very well.
 
I moved here with 23 guinea pigs! I sold my house within four days, as I used to watch programmes about selling houses and the best way to present them. I packed up all my personal stuff, before even marketing the house, so it didn't look cluttered. I waited until the weather warmed up in the spring time and moved the piggies from bedroom 2 into the garage. I then gave the room that they had vacated a quick paint. I do think that some people see your home as rodent ridden, if you've got a large number of guinea pigs. One of my neighbours constantly asks me if just me and Priya (my cat) live in the house and if all the piggies live in the log cabin! That is correct, but I am so tempted to say 'well sort of, if you don't count the tarantulas and snakes that are upstairs in my spare room'. I just want to see the expression on her face! By the way, it is just me and Priya in the house! Anyone who knows me would be sure that I wouldn't have any snakes anywhere near!
 
I am now on day 8 of wiping down paintwork then repainting scuffed walls and doors in dull neutral colours that match the existing colours as closely as possible.
Frida and Hatty both volunteered to be memes about how exciting this literal watching paint dry task is for me:
2023-05-31 13.47.07.webp
2023-05-31 13.48.20.webp
I think now there is just 1 more coat of "antique cream soft sheen" to put on one wall, and the bathroom tile grout to scrub then brighten up, and I'm ready for the estate agent!
 
Needn't have worried, the estate agent chap is a huge animal lover and didnt think piggies in the master bedroom at all strange, in fact he wanted to take pigtures to show his wife the cage set-up :)

Valuation achieved to the exact sum I was hoping for, and viewing what might be the perfect house later today- it seems very big, not based on any knowledge of hooman dwellings, but in piggy terms, if the ground floor is 800 sq ft... and we say 8 sq ft for a pair of piggies... that would accomodate 200 piggies wouldnt it?! :)
 
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