Advice please, plan to sell house and move with rabbits

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I guess what I'm looking for here is people's experiences, maybe some advice and encouragement. We are planning to move soon, the time has come to upgrade our home to something larger. We met with a realtor tonight, and he suggests we put the house on the market by the end of January, so that gives us less than a month to rent a pod, deep clean and declutter. Naturally he also said the rabbits, who live in a large nic cube setup in our living room and are mostly free roam, should move to the basement until we move, because they won't exactly help matters when people come to tour the house.
This leaves me with all kinds of worries. This summer when it was really hot upstairs I did set up a room in the basement for them where they could be cooler, and they hated it down there. It wasn't home to them, obviously. So now not only will they have to move there while the house is on the market, but they'll have to move again when we find a new house. I am scared they will be too stressed, might get sick etc. What are your experiences? Am I being overprotective and silly? It's colder down there than the upstairs so I worry they'll be too cold. Basically it's a big change and they don't deal with change that well. What does everyone think?
 
I understand where the realtor is coming from -- the idea of decluttering and of staging a house for sale. But I don't see why, if all of that is done, that one, neat rabbit cage is going to prevent someone from buying a house.

We had sold a house when we had rabbits. We didn't have a basement ;) We just made sure that, before a showing, we had the cage neat and clean with the bunnies in the cage (not roaming, obviously). Most people can tour a house and look past a single cage -- especially if the rest of the place is decluttered, neat and clean.

If your rabbits were fine with the prior move to the basement, then I'd see no problem. But if it stresses them, then I wouldn't push it. They will already be sensing changes as you begin packing things up and begin (possibly) re-arranging their normal roaming area(s).

My suggestion would be to keep them where they are.
 
Believe me I would love to, unfortunately our home is pretty small, and as soon as you open the front door and come in you see a big nic cage and rabbits, which I can understand might deter most buyers. My rabbits are the type that won't leave the safety of the room they live in and will not set foot on the hardwood floor. So I guess I will have to relocate them to the basement for a while. Tomorrow our pod will be delivered and we can start the process of loading extraneous stuff. I'm so nervous! But the bunnies won't move down there til the last possible minute.
 
Do people with cats and/or dogs that are selling their house, move them to the basement? Probably not. If the rabbits area is clean, the room they live in is clean, and there are no signs of destruction caused by the rabbits, I see no reason that you need to move them and risk upsetting them.

An alternative if you feel that their cage is too large and prominent in the room, is to reduce the size of their cage so it's not as noticeable. You could also just move them to the basement for the few hours that it takes to show someone your place, then move your rabbits back once the people are gone. Might help to also use this time as their treat time so it's a positive association.
 
Can you move the bunns to a bedroom? Seems like a bedroom would present better than a living room. Put them in the bedroom and forget about a cage/pen?
 
Move the bunns to the bedroom with a litter box. I'd think they'd do good there without a cage/pen. Just tell the prospective buyers, they're like cats...or better...with litter boxes.
 
Well I haven't moved them yet, been saving that for last. My plan is to keep them on the main floor in the spare room across from our bedroom. That way they can hop down the hall and be in their beloved living room. Only issue is that it will be a fight to put them away but oh well. I think it's the best compromise I can come up with. Right now in Edmonton it's a buyers market. So selling our home will be a challenge even without pets involved. But I'm hopeful. Thanks for all the great insights so far guys.
 

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