With the current downtrend in the rental market, is it time for landlords to stop automatically saying no to tenants having pets, and increase their overall tenant pool? Below I’ll outline the pro’s and con’s of renting out a pet friendly property.
The pro’s
Since our default position traditionally has been to have a no pets policy due to all the “problems” caused for landlords, you may not be as familiar with the benefits of allowing your tenants to have pets. Here are some reasons below:
- You automatically get a larger prospective tenant pool
- Tenants are more likely to have a longer tenure, as its more difficult to move again to a pet friendly property
- Responsible pet owners are responsible tenants. If they can take care of an animal, chances are they’ll take care of your rental
- There’s a chance you may be able to charge a premium price which with today’s ever increasing interest rates, can make all the difference
- Allowing pets will help create a good tenant-landlord relationship, which is beneficial to have when / if future problems arise.
The con’s
We are all familiar with the problems pets can cause, I’ll revisit the main ones below:
- Pets can do damage, especially un-trained ones.
- Disruption to neighbors. Dogs barking, birds squawking and roosters waking everyone up! This can all create issues
- Pet odors
In my opinion, the positives of allowing pets far outweighs the negative. However I would suggest, as you do with prospective tenants, you vet (no pun intended) the animal and get reference checks from third parties such as trainers or previous neighbors.
Jackson Farron
