Something that inevitably comes along with being a pet owner is learning to deal with how labor intensive it can be to care for your four-legged friends. If you ever miss a day or two of cleanup, seemingly the mess they leave behind can get out of control overnight. Due to this and other factors, when somebody decides to rent out a property, their first inclination is most often to disallow pets. It can be challenging to overcome the mental hurdle of trusting tenants to properly care for the pets and their messes. The principal concern is that the property value could potentially decline in the future due to the damage done by pets. These worries are occasionally justified, and scenarios indeed do play out where this happens. However, things often turn out much better than anticipated. There are quite a few noteworthy reasons why it might be beneficial (financially and otherwise) to actually allow pets. In this blog post, we are going to dive into some of the reasons why allowing pets in a rental property might be something that a smart real estate investor should seriously consider.
Increase the pool of prospective tenants for your rental
Pet friendly rental properties can be very difficult to come by. The number of rentals that allow pets varies from time to time but is generally somewhere right around 50%. When a landlord chooses not to allow pets, they are excluding a huge pool of prospective renters from even considering their property. Inversely, by allowing pets, the pool of potential tenants becomes much larger than it would be otherwise. Studies have shown that up to 75% of renters have at least one pet. A landlord can benefit by allowing pets because this decision greatly decreases the potential that their property might be vacant for a significant amount of time.
Increase your renewal rate
For landlords, there is nothing better than having responsible tenants who stay in the property long term. When these types of tenants move out, it can create a stress-filled process. The concern is that the next tenant will not be as responsible. Perhaps it will be difficult to get them to pay on time. What if they don’t take good care of the property like the previous renters did? There is also the worry that you might go a month or more without rent payments if you have any trouble finding new tenants. Having a pet friendly property increases the likelihood of having long-term tenants. Renters with pets usually know that it can be difficult to find a new pet friendly property. This makes them much less likely to want to move out and go through the process again.
Increase your earning potential
Property owners should always be looking for new ways to generate additional revenue with the assets in their portfolio. Having pet friendly properties lends to a couple of widely accepted methods to accomplish this. Pet friendly rentals can charge an additional pet deposit at move in. This pet deposit is most often nonrefundable or only partially refundable. The concept is that it will be used to pay for an added deep cleaning of the property after the renters and their pets move out. It is also becoming a common practice to levy an extra “pet rent” fee every month on top of the traditional rent expense. Even something as small as a $30 monthly “pet rent” charge will generate an additional $360 annually in revenues.
Increase the quality of tenants that your property is attracting
Individuals who own pets tend to be found in the more responsible segment of the population. It takes a great deal of time and effort to care for pets, and pet owners take on an added level of responsibility. These types of people usually do an above average job taking care of the property in which they reside. They are far more likely to treat the property like their own home.
When considering whether or not to make a rental property pet friendly, it is important to remember that there are many ways it can be beneficial. If you are worried about managing a pet friendly property or have questions about how to structure everything properly, don’t hesitate to reach out to the most trusted Fulshear property management company, PMI Northwest Houston. Don’t forget that we are also a leader in Richmond property management and provide property management Katy as well.
