Change Pet Policy or Wait Longer for Tenants

[Mahesh P.]

Hello BP Community,

I've a situation that I'd like to get your thoughts and wisdom on.

We have a rental townhouse that has a no pet policy. House has been on market for ~7 weeks with only 5 showings. We understood from our realtor that market in the neighborhood is generally slow and other homes have also been on the market for some time now.

We received an application from a potential tenant that has two small poodles less than 9 months old. The applicants look good - military family with good credit history. However, we're not sure about the pet aspect since we don't know anything about pets (never owned any).

Is it better to change the pet policy or just wait for the right tenants going into the holiday season? What do you think? A class community with rents in couple of thousands. We have already dropped the rent twice. Wondering whether lost rent would be worse than any potential damage from the small dogs. Any thoughts?

Many thanks in advance.

[Kevin Harrison]

Pets, espically small dogs can be fine but if both the dogs are under 9 months I would wait. They are still in that chew everything, not quite sure where to use the bathroom at phase. Im going through that with my pit right now and she's a little over a year old but I think being in the pound for so long might have messed her up.