Gopher Control Before Selling Your Home — Protect Your Sale

If you are preparing to list your home for sale and have active gopher activity, addressing it before listing is one of the higher-return pre-sale investments you can make. Gopher damage is visible, it signals deferred maintenance to buyers and their agents, and it can complicate the inspection and disclosure process in ways that affect your final sale price or your ability to close cleanly.

What Buyers and Agents Notice

Fan-shaped soil mounds scattered across a lawn or planting beds are immediately visible during any showing or walkthrough. Experienced buyers' agents know what gopher mounds look like and will note them — and may use visible pest activity as leverage in negotiations or as a reason to request credits or repairs after inspection. A yard full of fresh mounds signals to buyers that the property has not been actively maintained, regardless of the condition of the house itself.

Damaged lawn areas — brown patches, disrupted turf, collapsed tunnel traces — are similarly visible and similarly interpreted as maintenance deferred. A yard in gopher-damaged condition requires explanation that no seller wants to be making during showings.

The Disclosure Question

California requires sellers to disclose material facts about a property's condition. Active pest infestations and known pest damage are generally considered material facts. An active gopher infestation at the time of listing — or gopher damage to hardscape, irrigation, or landscaping that has not been repaired — should be disclosed. Treating the infestation before listing eliminates the active infestation as a disclosure issue and demonstrates that you have addressed the problem rather than ignored it.

This is not legal advice — consult your real estate agent and attorney about specific disclosure obligations for your transaction. The general principle is that addressing known problems before listing is cleaner than disclosing and negotiating around them.

Timeline for Pre-Sale Treatment

Gopher control typically takes one to three weeks from first service to confirmed resolution. Schedule treatment at least three to four weeks before your planned listing date to allow time for the infestation to be resolved, the 60-day guarantee period to begin, and the yard to recover visually from the most recent mound activity. Fresh mounds that appeared before treatment will flatten and blend into the lawn within a few weeks of the gopher being removed and irrigation continuing normally.

If you are doing broader pre-sale landscaping work — new sod, fresh plantings, sprinkler repairs — schedule gopher treatment before the landscaping work, not after. Treating first protects your landscaping investment and avoids the scenario of new sod being disrupted by a gopher within days of installation.

Hardscape Damage Repair

If gopher activity has caused cracking or settling in walkways, patio sections, or pool coping, these repairs should be done after gopher treatment is confirmed complete and before listing. Repairing hardscape without treating the gopher first results in recurrent cracking from ongoing tunnel void settlement. The sequence is: treat gopher → confirm resolution → repair hardscape → list.

Related Articles

• Gopher Problems in Newly Landscaped Yards
• Do Gophers Damage Concrete and Pavement?
• How Long Does Gopher Control Take?
• Gopher Damage to Lawns — Identification and Recovery

Call 909-599-4711 — we can schedule pre-sale treatment with a turnaround that fits your listing timeline throughout Southern California.