Pros and cons of allowing dogs

[Scott Hurd]

I listed one of my units in revere Massachusetts  for 1700 with plenty of hits. 

My partner and I had a no pets policy at first but got aproched by a potential tennet who has a Siberian Husky she offered 1850 for said apartment. (She also has three teenage boys) Personally I dont have a problem with dogs the extra money would be great also with a dog like that she might become a nester (in a good way) but my partner is concerned about noise and dammages. If anyone could share success stories and disaster story that would be great 

Also any laws that may come into play with this issue

     Thanks

[Jennifer Beadles]

@Scott Hurd You might want to check with your insurance company and see if they have anything about dogs in your policy. I've seen insurance companies have exclusions for that on aggressive breed dogs, so check that out first.

Here are the pros and cons in my experience:

Pros:

- tenants seem to stay longer because its hard for them to find places that will take dogs

- I charge a $500 per dog additional security deposit & $25 per month in pet rent

Cons:

- I've had dogs completely destroy yards, and it takes weeks and even months to get the grass to grow back (interestingly enough, this is not an issue for new tenants who have dogs though since there dog will likely do the same)

- scratches on doors and chewed carpet

- Neighbor complaints about barking (Haven't had this much at all)

I have 14 units and I do allow dogs in all of them and have not had any horror stories yet, at least none that resulted in a lot of out of pocket expenses that the deposits did not cover.