Secondly, and it's just a pet peeve of mine so sorry if it seems petty, but if people want to get serious about investing in Pittsburgh, I'd highly recommend realizing we have an H at the end of it.

Usually, my process is to respond to their initial inquiries which come in from Zillow or Craiglist with a standard set of screening questions, about a dozen, which are qualifiers that allow me to rule out those with not enough income, smokers, or types of pets.

Think of all the things that could go wrong and see if the lease addresses them: unauthorized pets or tenants, early termination, security deposit, lease violations, late rent, eviction, lawn maintenance, parking, etc.5.

LOLOnce you have them back you could consider selling outright to another investor.As far as the dog goes-collect a pet deposit non-refundable or increase rent $25 a monthGood luck-Jim Sakalis 

Your best bet with pets is charging pet rent and additional deposit if you can.     

Now you have fur everywhere and a guest that is allergic to pet har checking in  2 hrs from now.

I have a property in Northern VA and have a potential tenant asking about getting the pet deposit and pet rent waived for her ESA.

No pet policy!!!

Also I was told -to get ahead the competition (and my suspicion about the prevalence of 2-3 bedroom beachfronts was confirmed) - we have to go pet friendly and accommodate 10-12 in that 3 bd house.

The one biggest factor I have found in decreasing vacancy is in unit laundry and pet policy.