Struggling to figuring out what to charge for rent.

[Dan Gustavson]

Hello to everyone at BiggerPockets - I was hoping you all could give me some direction how to come up with a solid number to charge for rent as i'm getting a little discouraged. I bought a townhouse three years ago, which was my first rental property, lived in it for a year then decided to move and keep it as a rental. We listed it in 2017 no pets at $1675 a month. We had dogs while living there, which people saw while walking through, so we decided we would allow the first tenant to have dogs which we got an additional $25 a month to equal $1700.. received a bunch of calls and it rented in THREE days!

My original tenants are not going to sign a third lease as they bought a house. The Utah (Salt Lake City) housing market, especially rent prices, have increased quite a bit over the last two years, so I thought I should bump it up a little more this next lease, especially with how much my property taxed went up this year. It's been listed as 3br 2.5 bath, end unit, full basement, 2340 sq feet NO pets for $1749 for just over 2.5 weeks and I haven't had much activity. I've had two no-shows and only 1 actual showing. I've had a few more people call off the sign that is in the front yard than the listing online, but they say it's out of their price range. I have spent quite a bit of time looking at rental rates for my specific location and I believe I fall in the middle of the higher range, but it's a higher end property. The rent range in my area is $1400-$1900. They are selling for $300-310k. My tenants are looking to move by the end of this month, but they are responsible for March if I don't have someone else in by March 1st. 

 I guess my questions are:

-Should I keep the rent at $1749, which I don't think is unreasonable, and hope that someone eventually rents it? 

-Should I drop the rent down to $1700 and see if I get more hits? I'll lose some cash flow since property taxes increased a bit.

-I've even tossed the idea around to list that I will allow dogs on a case-by-case basis and keeping the rent at $1749, or even upping it a little more (pet rent), and seeing if that will attract more people? I don't want to allow dogs, but dogs have been in there since its existence so it wouldn't be world ending for me.  

Also, I wanted to ask about pet laws in Utah. I'm obviously a small time landlord (under 4 units) so wonder what pet laws apply to me? I've read that in Utah that a landlord cannot deny someone that has a "emotional support animal", but if they are a small landlord, it doesn't apply. I know ADA animals are treated completely different. Can anyone confirm that this is truly the case, that I can deny an ESA animal as I only have 1 rental? I had one person call and asked if I would allow two ESA CATS, I immediatly said no, I do not allow cats.. this was before I heard about the pet laws. I also read that I cannot charge extra pet rent/deposit for an ESA animal, is this correct? Seems odd that I cannot say no to allowing pets, and if I did allow them, that I couldn't charge more for them in my own property. Some guidance on this would be appreciated as well. 

Sorry this is so long, if you have read to this point.. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so! If anyone has any other suggestions that I didn't think of, I am all ears. I truly try to do my homework and read as much on the subject before I reach out the everyone. Thank you in advance!

[Frank Boenzi]

Hello, in regards to what you should rent for you have to figure out if it would be better to drop the price and get it rented right away for less or take the chance and get a higher rental rate. If you feel it will rent right away at $1,700 i would drop it and get it rented. If you lose a month of rental income from it not being rented you will lose $1,749 or $1700. If you rent it at 1700 and get it rented right away you run the risk of only losing $552 for the year. This imo is better than losing a full month. 

I ran into this problem with one of my unit and i dropped the price. Allowed pets but charged a $300 non refundable pet deposit and charge a $50 a month pet fee (please verify with your laws). Essentially i got less for the rental but ended up getting more in the long run with the deposit and the monthly pet fee.  If you are able to do this in your state I would drop the price and make it up in the pet fee. 

Just my 2 cents.