Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever done it? I have my house on the market at the moment getting ready for the big move from WA to FL, no place to put all of my boas but right where they are in the "snake room"...LOL... Of course when folks come to look at the house I'm hoping they consider that a bedroom...

"I promise there are none roaming free in the room they are all secure"...LOL...

If you have a story I'd love to hear it..
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com
www.reptileinsider.com

Two words, " Good Luck "

Most of the people I know, will not even come to visit me because of my reptile room ( Boas ), so it's sad to say that selling a house with a reptile room to visit, could turn against you.

What I do suggest, is for you to take some pictures of the set up / room, give it to the agent before they head on over, post them also on the closed door of the room so the people visiting can see ahead of time what your set up looks like, and not totally freak out when they enter.

np

I have been curious how often people show houses with all their animals in it as well. When I moved last year, I moved into an apartment while I had my place on the market.
I assume that having snakes in the house during a showing could definately scare off some prospective buyers.
I have also worried about possible repercussions if a new owner were to ever get bit by a wild snake in the yard or find mice in the house. I think a lot of people would assume it was an excapee and place blame on the previous owners. I know it sounds rediculous and irrational to most of us here but you can never know how people who are nieve to exotic pets will react.
I had a neighbor flip out once when he found a field mouse in his house. I had him pounding on my door and his first assumption was that I had some feeders get loose.

Set up an "OPEN HOUSE" day and make sure that they are not there. People that are afraid of snakes will not care how secure they are. Once they find out about them, they will walk away....period. I sold our last house that way. Learned the hard way then.

Having a snake room is about the equilivant of having a huge living termite colony on display.

Travis Rose
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Travis Rose
Lazy S Snake Ranch
(859) 582-7310
1.0 100% DH for Snow Common Boa
1.0 Hypo, 66% DH Moonglow Common Boa
0.2 Normal Common Boa
0.1 66% DH for Snow Common Boa
2.7 Kenyans
0.3 Dogs (1 Full Pitbull, 1 Pit/Husky, & 1 Bernese Mt. Dog cross)
0.3 Cats (1 fat, 1 old, and 1 insane)
0.1 Very understanding wife
1.0 Toddler (WC not quite tame yet)

I think you are probably going to have that house for awhile if you show it with snakes in it. Not only that, if you show it and then move the snakes the realestate agents will remember it as the snakehouse and tell people, the grapevine will then be your worst enemy... Get them out before you show it. I just bought a new house and had enough trouble with the inspectors coming in. SnakeKeepers should be like vampires only comeout at night and only let your own kind know what you are. I only tell people if they want to know. I would love to display the fact that I breed snakes for a living, but with all the legal stuff going on I don't think it is best. You could always find a fellow snakekeeper to buy your house, if only it were that easy.

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Your best bet would be to rent a heated storage area for a few weeks/months. Move all the snakes there and have the house ready for viewing. This way you eliminate the chance of freaking people out. Also removes the chance that a boa decides to drop a nice steaming pile just as the people get to your house.

Warren
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Dr Warren Booth
North Carolina State University
Department of Entomology
3309 Gardner Hall
Raleigh, NC 27695-7613

When I sold my last house- I informed my realtor that I had a "hobby" room That I kept locked at all times! I said if someone walked thru & really liked the house I would be there at their "next" walk thru & would show the room at that time!! Would you want someone walking thru your house if you had a gun or expensive coin collection room for your hobby- I don't think so!!
My realtor saw the room first & said that sounded like the perfect way to show it- if they LIKED the house enough to see it again - they would put up w/ the HOBBY ROOM!

Thanks
Tim Koppenhofer
Special K Reptiles

np
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Greg Holland
GM HERPS
www.imageevent.com/gmherps
gmherps@sbcglobal.net

did for our showings...our "hobby" room also has the doggy door so we were able to justify keeping it locked...besides, it looks exactly the same as the room next to it...we just rode with that...lol
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Chris & Alliey
www.bloodyleopard.com
E-mail Us

a lot of people will not even walk through the door. Were in FL are you moving I am on the east coast of central FL.
Good Luck on your house.
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Vince Pramuk

well I am out in WA near seattle so if you need help with the snakes selling or housing for a bit just ask lol
good luck with the house

willem

When I had to move a couple years ago 3 different real estate agents refused to even take on the property to sell as long as the snakes were in the house. I had to move first which was very hard. Randy W.

I think Tim K. had a great idea! Of course the heated storage is great if you can afford that...But Lock it and wait till they are really interested enough to see your HOBBY ROOM...Talking about the room that way....puts it in another light.

Good luck Bro!

See you in Daytona!

Andy
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Well I haven't had anyone go running out the door yet.. I do warn them I do keep boas.. And I sure don't let anyone go in the house without permission..

Thanks for all of the ideas, I was thinking of moving them to my cage shop, but I'd have to throw up a few walls..

Moving somewhere in the Sarasota area..
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com
www.reptileinsider.com

over 40 boas in my bedroom last year when my parents sold their house which went in 2 weeks we just put huge tarps over my visons when people were checking out the house and told them that the snakes dont come with the house.

The area I lived in was highly sought after so that might have had something to do with it, there was actually a bidding war between two people as well, dont sweat it.

On a side note we were denied insurence coverage at our new house by state farm because of the boas just a FYI.

Greg

the absolute best thing (for selling) is to do everything possible to avoid letting anyone know about the snakes....the comment (brownsboas) about being like a "vampire" is the best way to describe it....unfortunatley.
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Chris & Alliey
www.bloodyleopard.com
E-mail Us

We are going to put are house on the market here shortly. I have are stuff in racks so I am going to add locked doors to them. Plus the rats I am going to lock in the shed.

The advice that I have read is probably all you can do. Just Don't let the buyers get suprised by your snake room. They Might have a phobia. Best Of luck, Kevin Johnson

I am going through the same thing right now. I even had a lady call the city humane society on me after my my agent showed her our house. She said that we kept copperheads in our basement and all I have is boas. That kind of ticked me off especially since there is a big sign on that door that says reptile research. Everything went fine with the humane society, they just looked through the basement window when I was not home and saw stacks of boaphiles with non venomous occupants.

Good luck with the house.

Marcus Williams

This just happened to me but I did sell the house, However explaining to my new lanlord was quite unnerving. But its all good now! HunterReptiles

Thats an interesting question and one I have wondered about myself if I ever moved. I guess I figured I would just try to buy a house and move first. On a side note I moved to Florida 4 years ago with almost 100 snakes and a Uhaul truck. Now that was an interesting experience lol cause I had to make it in one shot no overnighting it anywhere. I did at one time keep some snakes at my Dads condo and he had people over looking to buy it. In my brothers room I had a 12 foot burmese in a huge cage. We pushed the cages front against the wall and put a blanket over it. One person asked my brother about it and he said he was experimenting with recessed lighting (as there was light coming out the front) That was a great response. Im guessing you are moving from Washington state because of legislation? So welcome to Florida.
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quote-"Im guessing you are moving from Washington state because of legislation? So welcome to Florida"

No not really, I could keep what ever I liked to here really. My family is there, and I'm tired of the rain.. I've been here a long time, beautiful place, but it all starts to look the same after a long enough time.. Just looking for a change.

I lived there in 2000 for a bit and couldn't get into a house the market was so hot at the time.. Now it's more than cooled off and I need to sell this one to get rolling... Always something huh?
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com
www.reptileinsider.com

You'll probably have to move them first. We were able to rent some space and move our collection. The house went on the market the week after Independence Day last year and we closed July 31st.

A bank statement from our snake account slipped past the forwarding service and the new buyers freaked out, insisting that there must be snakes loose in the walls. Naturally, that was absurd, and all parties involved were quickly calmed, but I'm pretty sure the sale would never have happened if we'd attempted to keep the collection there during showings.

The first move, in summer, did not disturb our breeding efforts. Our second move, a couple months ago, to new permanent digs, did disturb our boas, but the ball pythons could have cared less.

Best of luck!

K. Royer

I am currently trying to sell my house as well. I have one of the bedrooms filled with cages as you do. All I did was cover the cages with sheets and keep the door closed. Usually people ask "What's under the sheets?" I tell them reptiles and I either get a response of "oh." -or- "Cool! Can I see them?"

I do have a small pair of Hermann's tortoises on top of a small pile of Boaphile cages and people all seem to like them, so maybe they assume its all tortoises?

I do think some people are extremely turned off by snakes though. If I had a place to put them in the meanwhile, I would.

I doesn't look like many have unloaded the house with the snakes in it.. Got me thinking what to do now, some good ideas here..

I might just rent a house down the road to put the snakes in untill the house sells. I'd probably get better money out of the house anyway. The new owner won't have the "snake room" in their head...LOL...
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com
www.reptileinsider.com