NEGLECTED pets ruin the value of a home.  Discipline, clean and love them and it shouldn't be a big deal.  And imho, everyone's house smells like something.

If you're worried about scratches though, look into those rubber nail tip thingies.  I hear they are fantastic. 

I tend to doubt this as a rule. If this was true, then given the number of pet owners in the country, there'd be waaaay more unsell-able or crazy-cheap homes on the market. Last I checked, that's not the case. 

Regarding smell, in my experience, it doesn't really matter how many animals you have. Whether a house smells of "animal" depends on the attention of the owner (like everything else about a home). I have a friend who owns 7 animals (5 cats, 2 dogs), and his house doesn't smell at all. Even my daughter, who is always the first to remark on stinky smells, doesn't notice anything smell-wise when she's been over to visit. My allergies aren't triggered much, either. Contrast that with a friend of my ex-husband's who had a very well-behaved dog that he took very good care of. His wife on the other hand wasn't so good about regular housecleaning, so their house always smelled like animal and I could never visit them without getting high on antihistamines first.

So, to say across the board that animals devalue a home is ludicrous. It's like saying having kids devalues a home. The way I've seen some kids act in the grocery store, I imagine they'd do more damage to a house than any pet! Plus, kids take waaay longer to train. ;-)

It's hard enough to sell an existing home over a new construction and pets don't help.  Pets can cause a serious drop in value for your home.  We keep our kitty litter changed, but my parents swear they can smell the cats immediately when they walk in.

When we sold our last home, we had laminate flooring, new carpet and new paint.  The man who bought it was highly allergic to cats and never got a single sniffle.  But it was because of the new paint and carpet and immaculate floors. So the answer is yes and no. 

I am paranoid about the very same thing all the time.. I have wood floors and plastic floor protectors for yards and yards. (tacky I know - but the wood is beautiful)

I have cheap home depot rugs that I use to protect the floors from the 98 lb dog. 

I sometimes smell the animals, but in general, I think that aside from a few dust bunnies, (or giant angora dust rabbits) that my home smells pretty nice.

I hope that my friends who don't have animals overcome the difference because of the coziness of my home. And, if it stinks, they will tell me. I don't think that the value will be affected by it at all. 

I can say that the house that I grew up in was highly devalued by a favorite tee tee place from the cats, but recarpeting and new air filters usually solve that problem....right?  I don't know that PAINT is necessary. 

It might be needed in my house, though, because there is a general ring-around-the-entry-hall where the dog wags her tail so hard, she slams it into the wall furiously while greeting us in the evening, even though she has been trained to wag in the kitchen.