When you put your Las Vegas home on the market, you spend weeks preparing the interior. You deep clean the carpets, paint the baseboards, and stage the living room. But if a prospective buyer walks out the back door and smells dog waste, or has to navigate around piles on the patio, the showing is effectively over.
The backyard is a major selling point in the valley, especially in master-planned communities in Henderson and Summerlin where outdoor living spaces are heavily emphasized. To check your property shows well, a professional one-time cleanup is a necessary part of the staging process.
The photo problem
Long before a buyer walks through the door, they see the property in pictures. Real estate photographers capture wide angles of the backyard to show off the landscaping. If your decorative rock beds or artificial turf are littered with dried dog waste, it will show up in the high-resolution images.
Because dog waste blends in so easily with decorative rock and gravel, homeowners often miss significant accumulation when doing a sweep themselves. Our technicians are trained to walk a tight, methodical grid across the entire yard. They look at the landscaping from multiple angles to find the waste that has settled into the stones, getting the yard ready for the listing photos.
Managing the heat and odor
Visual appeal is only half the battle. If a buyer steps out onto the patio during an open house in July, the heat will amplify any existing odors. In Las Vegas, where summer temperatures sit above 100 degrees from June through September, dog waste bakes directly into the hardscaping.
Artificial turf is particularly problematic. The fine organic residue from the waste melts down the synthetic blades and traps itself in the porous backing. To solve this before a showing, the solid waste must be completely removed first. Then, if the property has a working outdoor hose spigot, we can rinse the turf to wash away the residue and brush the blades against the grain so the grass stands up and looks new.
Finally, we apply a yard-safe enzyme and probiotic deodorizer. This spray breaks down the odor-causing residue at its source. It usually dries in about twenty minutes, leaving the patio smelling neutral and ready for visitors.
Maintaining the yard while listed
A one-time deep sweep is a great way to get the house ready for photos, but if you continue living in the home with your dogs while it is on the market, the waste will return. You cannot afford to have a realtor call with a short-notice showing when the yard is a mess.
Many sellers transition from the initial cleanup to a temporary weekly or twice-weekly recurring route. Because our residential service is strictly month to month with no long-term contracts, you can maintain a clean yard while the house is listed, and cancel the service with no fee as soon as the property closes.
Scheduling the cleanup
Real estate timelines are tight. We quote one-time cleanups based on the yard size, the number of dogs, and the estimated accumulation. We can typically schedule the visit within the same week you request the quote, making sure the yard is cleared before the photographer or the first buyer arrives.