How Investors Can Leverage Dog-Friendly Cities

Source: Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash.

We've talked about whether you should allow pets in your rental before. But what about leveraging dog-friendly cities? If your investment property is located in a city perfect for dog owners, shouldn't you take advantage of that in your rental properties?

Yes, you should. According to Zillow, a new survey found that 61% of pet lovers credit their furry friend’s happiness and well-being as their most significant reason to move. Plus, 72% of dog owners prioritize living in a dog-friendly city with many other dog owners, dog-specific parks, and pet-friendly home rentals.

In this article, we'll show you how to leverage these dog-friendly cities and towns and make your rental the friendliest dog house on the market.

How to Have Pet-Friendly Rentals

Zillow teamed up with Rover, a dog-sitting app, to analyze registered dog-owner accounts. With Rover’s database of millions of pet profiles and Zillow’s page views for pet-friendly rental listings, the study pinpoints the best up-and-coming dog-friendly cities for investors like you to know.

Source: Zillow

Without a doubt, metro dog parks and commuter-friendly towns are increasingly deciding factors for dog-lovers looking to rent a house or apartment with their pet. As a landlord, you can leverage families’ passion for their dogs by highlighting your rental’s pet-friendly amenities, accommodating rental rules, and favorable location. Let's review some of the best practices to leverage this data.

1. Include Pet-friendly Amenities and Features

First, consider offering pet amenities in your rental property. Depending on your budget, the changes can be as simple as including pet bowls to reworking the flooring to be pet-proof. Either way, the more pet-specific features you have, the more pet parents will gravitate toward you and feel comfortable in reaching out for a possible rent discussion.

The amenities that pet owners look for the most in a rental are the following:

• - Pet food bowls in the kitchen
• - Litter boxes in the bathrooms
• - Pet toys (e.g., cat scratchers) in the living room
• - Enclosed patio or decks for high-energy pets
• - Fences or dividers along staircases and to block off elaborate landscaping
• - Pet-friendly furniture, doors, and flooring (e.g., heavy-duty laminates)
• - Pet-friendly outdoor areas (avoid loose soils and flowerbeds)
• - Hand-held shower heads outside to clean the pets

Generally speaking, the more amenities provided for pets, the more likely tenants are to stay in your property for long-term leases. Your goal is to help tenants see a future living in your rental property—a life where they don't have to give up their pets for a good home.

Source: Home Design Lover.

If you’re building or renovating a property from the ground up, you can even include a shower area in the laundry room and a small pet house under the staircase. Pet parents will go bonkers over them!

2. Market Your Rental as Pet-Friendly

Once you’ve prepared your property for pets, the next step is to market it as pet-friendly.

Ensure that you list everything a pet owner would like to hear in the listings. The easiest and simplest way is to announce that you allow pets in the rental, but you can go the extra mile as well, mentioning the special features and amenities you’ve added to make the pet feel at home.

For instance, Antioch, TN, saw a 62.2% increase in new Rover dog accounts and Zillow page view traffic for pet-friendly rentals since last year. The town is filled with dog-friendly restaurants and weekend activities so tenants don’t have to leave their pets at home for their next adventure. Because of this, many of the rental properties in Antioch are dog-friendly, with listings reflecting such accommodations:

Source: Zillow

Some other Antioch listings also say “Contact manager” regarding pets, indicating that pets are allowed, compared to other listings in other cities that simply state how pets are not allowed.

Ultimately, put yourself in the shoes of those looking for a place to rent, and you’ll know how much they love rental properties that blatantly say that they’re pet-friendly.

3. Consider Pets in Your Lease Agreement

Finally, ensure that your lease agreement includes any required documents necessary for registering pets. These may include information about the type of pet allowed in the property as well as fees associated with having pets (if applicable).

Here’s a checklist for you to feel comfortable allowing pets in your rental property:

•  - Ask for training certificates or proof of obedience training to confirm if the animal is sociable and well-trained, especially if your rental is an apartment unit instead of a stand-alone home.
• - Require proof of health, including vaccinations. Like the point above, this is crucial if you’re renting out an apartment unit where the pet will be in contact with other tenants in the building.
• - Ask for references. Has the animal lived in a rental before? If yes, check with previous landlords and see if they mention any concerns about noise, damage, or behavior.
• - Consider requiring pet rent or a pet security deposit so you have the funds to cover potential damages that the pet may cause. Still, not all states allow this, so check the law and local ordinances to ensure that you’re allowed to charge these fees.
• - Update your lease agreement to include the pets. Outline what type of pets are allowed (e.g., certain dog sizes or breeds) and how many of them can live in the rental. You can also include stipulations that the pet must be spayed or neutered.
• - Outline owner responsibilities in the lease agreement. The owner should be responsible for cleaning up after the pet, handling waste removal, sound control (for barking), and overall supervising the pet.

Note that service animals are allowed even for rentals with no-pet policies, so you’ll do yourself a favor by including the above notes for your lease agreement regardless if you want to make your rental pet-friendly. If the tenant’s pet is considered a service animal, they are exempt from pet rent and additional security deposits, as dictated by the HUD.

Dog-Friendly Cities, Dog-Friendly Rentals

Making your rental property pet-friendly is an excellent way to attract tenants who want to keep their furry friends close. From providing pet-specific amenities to including information in the lease agreement, there are many ways you can ensure that you and your tenants feel comfortable with animals on the premises.

By following these tips, you’ll create an environment where potential tenants will gravitate toward your rental property as they search for a home for themselves and their beloved pets. Start marketing!

Get in touch with me for more tips like these. I’m more than willing to help you in your investment journey, especially if you’re looking to purchase a rental property in the Metro Detroit area. Talk to you soon!