How NOT to sell a house

Mary's Funny Real Estate Stories: I went to do a listing presentation to a lady who raises exotic birds. There were cages from floor to ceiling on all the walls of every room in the house, obviously making all the rooms much smaller than they actually were.

The noise from the birds was deafening, sort of like being in the rain forest. There were feathers flying everywhere, and her fans were just causing them to fly and land on every surface. There was also a good amount of bird poop and bird seed everywhere. Some of the birds were out of their cages and flying around, landing on me, my paperwork, my briefcase, etc. It was complete chaos.

I gently tried to tell her that buyers wouldn't be able to even see the house, because there were so many birds and feathers etc. around. She was hurt to think I might suggest that she move the birds to another location while the house was on the market. She was offended when I said that perhaps there were lots of people (like me) who wouldn't be thrilled to have birds squawking and flying around while they were viewing the house. I turned down the listing. Can you even imagine how difficult it would be to hold an open house there?

Don't hurt your chances of selling by being too rigid in your views of your pets or other stuff after your realtor gently asks you to change something. She is not trying to offend you, but tell you what buyers want to see when they look for a new home.