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Or a house full of cats. I had a 'cat lady' friend who struggled to sell her home because she had 13 cats. 13 'indoor' cats. Even at a great price the house wou

Or a house full of cats. I had a 'cat lady' friend who struggled to sell her home because she had 13 cats. 13 'indoor' cats. Even at a great price the house would not sell. Enter the wonderful folks at Zillow that bought her house based purely on the numbers. Last I heard they still hadn't been able to move that house at any price.

zionic 5y ago
Toxoplasmosis is a scary thing.
- halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
  Not exactly. From what I read it’s almost completely benign in most humans.
  - willcipriano 5y ago
    Certainly it isn't a issue after they cats no longer live there and it's been cleaned to a reasonable standard. If it knocks 20 grand off the price of the house it's worth spending 2k to have everything deep cleaned.
    - mint2 5y ago
      Cat pee permanently stains flooring and is also extremely hard to get the smell out. 2k will not be nearly enough if there’s extensive cat damage. Wood floors turn black with it and must be replaced.
      - tartoran 5y ago
        Yes, even after extensive renovations cat pee smell can persist and some people are bothered by that smell. Im one of those people but I do like cats and wouldn’t mind having cats if they wondered around the neighborhood rather than be inside only.
        megablast 5y ago
        Killing small animals and birds.
        trhway 5y ago
        There are billions of old and ill small animals and birds each year who would normally be taken care by various predators. Around humans pretty much only cats can do that important and necessary job. The popular Smithsonian study that people like to cite which states billions of killed by cats somehow fails to mention what share of killed are ill/old vs healthy. There is no surprise though in such a glaring deficiency of that study once one learns that that Smithsonian team has a researcher convicted for animal, specifically toward cats, torture. Another aspect - rats, a human civilization companion, raid nests for eggs thus decimating birds population around humans. By controlling rats cats help to maintain birds population.
  - zionic 5y ago
    This is not true, see my reply to your sibling comment for a more detailed answer. Toxoplasmosis is highly correlated with severe mental disorders like schizophrenia.
- goldenkey 5y ago
  Indoor cats don't magically get diseases. Just like an indoor pet bat isn't going to magically contract rabies. They might if you are letting them out to go roam the terrain. I'm really tired of these silly perpetuated mythologies.
  - erikpukinskis 5y ago
    How can an indoor cat ever clean themselves though? It doesn’t seem like most indoor cat owners bathe the cats, do they?
    - fwip 5y ago
      Cats lick themselves to get clean. They don't bathe even when they're outside.
      - zionic 5y ago
        Cats are not "clean" after they lick themselves, if anything this behavior is primarily responsible for the cultivation of a parasite lifecycle that has co-evolved to the cat's gut. Cats, especially ones who share litter boxes, routinely get covered in potentially parasite-bearing feces via litter boxes and ingest it via grooming. This allows for easy additional spread/cross infection. "Cats lick themselves, therefore they are clean" is a long-discredited but persistent myth.
        fwip 5y ago
        The question was not "are cats clean," but "how do indoor cats clean themselves?" Indoor cats clean themselves in the same way as outdoor cats, by licking themselves.
    - goldenkey 5y ago
      Bathing cats can give them infections if the water gets in their ears. Generally, they clean themselves in a freshly cleaned litter box, what's called a "sand bath" by rolling around. They also clean themselves by licking themselves. They do a very good job, I've been around cats my whole life and none of them smell except perchance the fat ones that cannot lick their butts and sometimes have a bit of a dirty butt. I'm not sure if you asked the question in regard to disease -- but even indoor cat poop will not carry diseases. Perhaps E. coli or other bacteria already in the cat's gut (and our guts too), but toxoplasmosis is not going to pop up unless it's in the cat food (uncooked pork, etc.) or the cat already has it. It is another common mythology that somehow poop has "disease" in it. It has no more disease than we already possess...
SilasX 5y ago
Okay even accepting that Zillow made big unforced errors, that doesn't sound believable. Like, they don't make the offer conditional on someone looking at it in person for red flags?
- kube-system 5y ago
  As I understand, they were buying sight unseen. This happens in hot real estate markets. If you don’t want to miss out or start a bidding war, you have to be the most frictionless buyer.
  - sgerenser 5y ago
    In my area, OpenDoor was buying sight unseen. All they required was a 10 minute zoom call where you walk them through the house. Zillow actually sent out someone to do a home inspection (although a bit more cursory than what a typical buyer would pay for). This may have varied by market though.
- spamizbad 5y ago
  Walking through a house with a high quality N95 mask in a hurry you might not notice the cat pee smell - or chalk it up to there being 13 cats and once they're gone the smell will go away.

zionic 5y ago

Toxoplasmosis is a scary thing.

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
Not exactly. From what I read it’s almost completely benign in most humans.
- willcipriano 5y ago
  Certainly it isn't a issue after they cats no longer live there and it's been cleaned to a reasonable standard. If it knocks 20 grand off the price of the house it's worth spending 2k to have everything deep cleaned.
  - mint2 5y ago
    Cat pee permanently stains flooring and is also extremely hard to get the smell out. 2k will not be nearly enough if there’s extensive cat damage. Wood floors turn black with it and must be replaced.
    - tartoran 5y ago
      Yes, even after extensive renovations cat pee smell can persist and some people are bothered by that smell. Im one of those people but I do like cats and wouldn’t mind having cats if they wondered around the neighborhood rather than be inside only.
      - megablast 5y ago
        Killing small animals and birds.
        trhway 5y ago
        There are billions of old and ill small animals and birds each year who would normally be taken care by various predators. Around humans pretty much only cats can do that important and necessary job. The popular Smithsonian study that people like to cite which states billions of killed by cats somehow fails to mention what share of killed are ill/old vs healthy. There is no surprise though in such a glaring deficiency of that study once one learns that that Smithsonian team has a researcher convicted for animal, specifically toward cats, torture. Another aspect - rats, a human civilization companion, raid nests for eggs thus decimating birds population around humans. By controlling rats cats help to maintain birds population.
- zionic 5y ago
  This is not true, see my reply to your sibling comment for a more detailed answer. Toxoplasmosis is highly correlated with severe mental disorders like schizophrenia.
goldenkey 5y ago
Indoor cats don't magically get diseases. Just like an indoor pet bat isn't going to magically contract rabies. They might if you are letting them out to go roam the terrain. I'm really tired of these silly perpetuated mythologies.
- erikpukinskis 5y ago
  How can an indoor cat ever clean themselves though? It doesn’t seem like most indoor cat owners bathe the cats, do they?
  - fwip 5y ago
    Cats lick themselves to get clean. They don't bathe even when they're outside.
    - zionic 5y ago
      Cats are not "clean" after they lick themselves, if anything this behavior is primarily responsible for the cultivation of a parasite lifecycle that has co-evolved to the cat's gut. Cats, especially ones who share litter boxes, routinely get covered in potentially parasite-bearing feces via litter boxes and ingest it via grooming. This allows for easy additional spread/cross infection. "Cats lick themselves, therefore they are clean" is a long-discredited but persistent myth.
      - fwip 5y ago
        The question was not "are cats clean," but "how do indoor cats clean themselves?" Indoor cats clean themselves in the same way as outdoor cats, by licking themselves.
  - goldenkey 5y ago
    Bathing cats can give them infections if the water gets in their ears. Generally, they clean themselves in a freshly cleaned litter box, what's called a "sand bath" by rolling around. They also clean themselves by licking themselves. They do a very good job, I've been around cats my whole life and none of them smell except perchance the fat ones that cannot lick their butts and sometimes have a bit of a dirty butt. I'm not sure if you asked the question in regard to disease -- but even indoor cat poop will not carry diseases. Perhaps E. coli or other bacteria already in the cat's gut (and our guts too), but toxoplasmosis is not going to pop up unless it's in the cat food (uncooked pork, etc.) or the cat already has it. It is another common mythology that somehow poop has "disease" in it. It has no more disease than we already possess...

SilasX 5y ago

Okay even accepting that Zillow made big unforced errors, that doesn't sound believable. Like, they don't make the offer conditional on someone looking at it in person for red flags?

kube-system 5y ago
As I understand, they were buying sight unseen. This happens in hot real estate markets. If you don’t want to miss out or start a bidding war, you have to be the most frictionless buyer.
- sgerenser 5y ago
  In my area, OpenDoor was buying sight unseen. All they required was a 10 minute zoom call where you walk them through the house. Zillow actually sent out someone to do a home inspection (although a bit more cursory than what a typical buyer would pay for). This may have varied by market though.
spamizbad 5y ago
Walking through a house with a high quality N95 mask in a hurry you might not notice the cat pee smell - or chalk it up to there being 13 cats and once they're gone the smell will go away.