SFR House Hack-Potential Tenant has pets...Need Advice

[Kevin Phu]

Okay so I'm looking for some advice from landlords that have more experience than I...especially in the SFR house hacking realm.

I currently own a 4br 2ba SFR. I live in the master and have two of the other bedrooms rented out. Currently the 4th bedroom is my office space. I have a friend who is moving out of her apartment that she was splitting with a friend. She needs a short term place to live until she relocates to a different city.

She has two small dogs. I know these dogs and they are very well behaved and I personally wouldn't mind living them. They can pretty much be unleashed anywhere without a worry and are very obedient. They don't piss or poop in the house and don't go bark crazy.

However, I dog sat a friend's dog recently and that was a nightmare for me and my tenants. The dog didn't behave at all, climbed all over everything, take off out the front door if it were opened and it wasn't held back, etc... This left a sour taste in my tenants mouth about dogs in the home I believe.

Currently, with the two rooms rented out, I am paying total out of pocket less than what I was previously paying for my own apt so I'm not pressed for income. However, if I rented out the last bedroom, my mortgage would be pretty much completely covered and I would have to only pay ~$300 out of pocket to cover the rest of the mortgage and utilities.

How would you guys handle this? Stick to no pets or ask my current tenants on their opinion? They aren't complete strangers. One is my coworker that works on my team and the other works in a different department.