To tell someone their house stinks of dog?

[newtscamander]

I'm an estate agent, people have put their house on the market with me and all three viewers this week have mentioned it stinks of dog. BUT they wouldn't have otherwise bought the house, as it just wasn't right for various reasons. So really the dog smell isn't necessarily stopping the house from being sold...yet... WIBU to tell them though?!

[inlovewithhubby]

I'm making an educated guess that professionally you have to tell them - you're an agent, literally their agent, so just a conduit for information rather than a screening service. As pp have said though, you can put it tactfully rather than being direct to save their feelings and your professional relationship. From the sounds of some of your posts though you may struggle with that...

[BlueFolly]

I too am surprised that this isn't a question that can be resolved with a brief chat with your colleagues.

[Pagwatch]

Crikey.
Your levels of professionalism are all over the place - you know enough that you can be sniffy at the suggestion you might have shared confidential information yet not so professional that you know, as an agent on behalf of the vendor, you are obliged to pass on feedback which may negatively affect their ability to sell. Or how to do that tactfully.

[whois]

If someone is stupid enough to not buy a house because of that I wouldn't trust them to be bright enough to be able to complete the sale.

What a silly thing to say.

There are lots of things that make you think "ooooh this is nice" and make you linger - nice smell, nice light, nice music. Think what shops do to make you stay and browse.

A house stinking of dog will be off putting.

If you are selling you want to maximize your chances of getting a high price.

[whois]

We viewed a house which absolutely stunk. I think a cat had been spraying in their house for years. It was also filthy.

Oh god my friend bought a flat and the second bedroom had been the cats.... the smell of cat piss NEVER went away despite scrubbing and scrubbing the floorboards.

[YoungGirlGrowingOld]

I bought a house that smelt of dog and managed to complete the sale I would never buy from a dog owner again because we couldn't get the stench out of the carpet despite 2 professional cleans. And then we binned it anyway. We also had to get skirting boards and door frames replaced because of scratching and chewing.

I suspect most if not all dog owners have a degree of nose blindness. Most dogs absolutely honk.

[mygorgeousmilo]

A young, fit and healthy person with change left after buying.... Might possibly not mind buying a stinking house and ripping everything out. Having just (after 11 months of graft) completed renovation of a nicotine stained and dripping in cats piss house.... I could not go through it again! I don't think that being put off by smells means that someone is some kind of idiot?! There are surely other, non mingling properties available. Tell them! YANBU

[NicknameUsed]

"If someone is stupid enough to not buy a house because of that I wouldn't trust them to be bright enough to be able to complete the sale."

Clearly, from the experience of several posters, buying a house that smells of dogs wasn't the best idea.

[ChocomelandRinglings]

Of course we dog owners know that there is a doggy smell in our houses - but we don't care. We can't (usually) smell it, but we do know it exists!

Please don't think we are naive enough to think the house smells of roses.

Personally, I prefer the smell of dog to candles, plug-ins (evil things!), and fecking 'diffusers'

[WalkingBlind]

My house smells of dog and I'm pretty aware of it, but I would make the effort to shift the smell. Normally if someone comments I think "Yes I know it does, it's because I have a dog..."

But in this case I wouldn't be offended so I would say something