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How Pests Can Prevent You From Selling Your House

Though the amount of effort you put into making your house a difficult target for burglars largely depends on your neighborhood’s safety level, locking your door is never a bad idea. 

However, although your property might be safe if you install motion detectors that would discourage those with bad intentions from trying their luck, you might be completely unprepared to fend-off any attempts made by smaller intruders: pests. Most people don’t spend multiple hours researching ways to get rid of various types of pests unless those unwanted guests invade their homes. 

Although if you spot spiders, ants, or rats inside your house, it will never be good news; such discovery could be especially stressful if you are trying to sell your home. Why? That’s because pests can severely decrease the value of your property. In a moment, we’ll explain why addressing this issue before you invite potential buyers to see the property would be a wise decision.

Why Dealing With Pest Problem Should Be Your Priority

If you have ants, rodents, or any other pests in your house, you should promptly deal with them, or the problem will worsen. Our homes offer us protection from the elements, but if we are not careful enough, we could inadvertently invite others as well. At the same time, your home is an excellent source of food and has fewer predatory species than there are in the wild, which to bugs, mice, and rats might seem like a utopia. 

Unfortunately, their presence will have a negative impact on the value of your property. According to the experts at Highest Cash Offer, most of the potential buyers will simply lose interest in buying your house if they discover that they would have to deal with pests right from the start. Even those who will be fine with dealing with this nuisance will expect the offer to be significantly lower. 

Though you might need to postpone selling your house for a bit, it is a better idea from a financial standpoint, as the pest control services would cost less than if you were to sell a pest-infested house. Most people indeed hate seeing pests on their property, but it’s not only because of disgust – pests can transmit many dangerous diseases, damage the structural integrity of a house, or even cause fires. 

Termites

Although when it comes to pests, termites themselves won’t scare many people, their actions could prove to be extraordinarily costly. That’s because you might not discover those small intruders early on, and as a result, you’ll have to get rid of them and fix the damage they’ve caused. It could cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars, but what’s even worse, they could damage the house’s structural integrity, which could potentially endanger anyone inside. 

Some of the most popular methods to get rid of termites from your house involve imidacloprid, which is a termite insecticide. However, if the problem is already severe, you would be better off contacting pest control experts. This way, the damages won’t become extensive enough to threaten the structure of your home, which could have potentially tragic consequences. 

Rodents

Many homeowners are struggling to keep their homes rodent-free, which isn’t the easiest task if we consider that mice and rats are omnivorous. It means that they can eat anything. Though rodents are especially fond of grains, fruits, and seeds, in their absence, they can survive on anything. That’s why you might struggle with a rodent problem in your house even if you keep all the food packages sealed shut – instead, the garbage that you don’t throw out could be the culprit. 

Rodents can transmit dangerous diseases, such as Hantavirus, and if mice or rats gain access to your food, you might get a salmonella infection. That’s not all – if you happen to get bitten, you might get a rat-bite fever, which can also be transmitted if you come into contact with rat urine or feces. Consequently, if rodents infest your home, potential buyers will expect its price to be lower.

However, rodents also pose a different kind of threat that could be not less dangerous to anyone living in the home. Though they might make a mess and emit noises that could be downright scary, that’s not all – if you spot any rats or mice in your home, you should immediately start thinking about how to get rid of them, as the damage caused by rodents often causes fires. 

Your house offers them protection from the elements and from the predators, but as you might soon discover, rats and mice are especially attracted to sources of heat, but also all sorts of wires. Because of that, they might cause costly damages, but sometimes a couple of sparks might be just enough to start a fire that could consume your entire house. Sure, they came to your house because they want to survive, which is why it’s easy to sympathize with them, but remember that their presence could lead to a catastrophe.

Pigeons

Even though when most people hear pests, they think of rats, mice, or spiders, birds like pigeons could prove to be a nuisance as well. These non-migratory birds can cause costly damages to your property if they discover that there is easy access to food nearby. Though the arrival of just a few birds probably won’t cause you to start worrying, if your roof would make a perfect nesting place and there are seeds and grains to feed the entire flock, your problem could become much more severe in no time. 

If you’ve watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds, you might be afraid that they will attack you, but most likely, it won’t be the case. However, their droppings could transmit diseases such as salmonella or toxoplasmosis. If you have pet animals, they could come into contact with those droppings and later infect humans. Additionally, birds could be carriers of mites and fleas, adding to the number of pests with which you would have to deal. 

However, although pigeon droppings could transmit various diseases, they could also damage buildings, as they are highly acidic. It would take a long time for them to damage the roof of your house, but if you don’t take care of this problem, it will happen eventually. 

Conclusion

Depending on the type of pests that you discover on your property, you might sympathize with them – after all, they are just trying to find some protection and food. However, apart from being carriers of diseases or even other pests, they could also damage your home. We are not just talking about scratches on the walls or claw marks on the floor. 

If you don’t take care of the problem in a timely manner, your house could collapse at any moment. The extent of the damages might be so severe that even decreasing your property’s price might not be enough to attract any customers. That’s why before you invite any potential buyers, make sure that your home isn’t infected by any kind of pests. If you discover that there are rats in your basement or termites trying to eat through your kitchen counter, you should deal with the problem before considering selling your house.

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