As a property management company in Charlotte, we sometimes get the most touching letters from owner clients. I’d like to share one of them entitled, “Pets in My Home Please!”
Dear BDF Realty,
Thank you for agreeing to manage our property; we’ve
worked really hard to make sure our property is upgraded and clean for the new
renter. The new paint and carpet really
makes it show well! We know you’ll do a
great job with it (BDF side note: thanks!).
We do have one small request. We are huuuuuge pet lovers. Could you make sure that you rent to a family
that has as many pets as possible? The
bigger the animals, the better! It
wouldn’t seem right to have a nice, big house without housing as many of God’s
creatures as possible. We’d consider
reducing the rent for tenants who can prove they have a large and varied brood
of animals. Thanks!
Regards,
Pet Lover
P.S. Not to be too picky, but we’d also like to give
preferential treatment to those prospective tenants who have unneutered
pets. The thought of them giving birth
to a litter in our rental home just sends shivers of joy down my spine!
P.S.S. Think Noah’s
Ark
OK, this letter isn’t real.
I’ve never had any owner clients who said they liked the idea of having
pets in their rental homes. But if
that’s the case, then why do almost all of them wind up accepting pets?
It’s simply because most tenants (easily over 50% in my
experience) have pets. And most pets do
not damage homes.
Let’s take a moment to acknowledge our fears with the
following scenario. A nefarious and
unkempt tenant has been breeding an even more nefarious and unkempt dog, with
the scary moniker of “Gargoyle” (Gargoyle is a great student who has far
exceeded his master’s nefariousness and unkemptness). They move into your rental home. Unfortunately, Gargoyle sometimes doesn’t
allow himself to be walked and winds up doing his business in the house. Gargoyle is also crazily aggressive and
enjoys chewing on all door beams and scratches the paint off the walls. After a year of making your home his lair,
Gargoyle and the tenant move out to destroy another rental home…
What happens? After
move-out, you (or your
property manager) does a walk-through.
The damage is clearly above normal wear and tear. Some walls need to be repainted, the carpet
either needs to be professionally steam-cleaned or replaced, and some door
beams need to be replaced. All of this
is taken out the security deposit. In
worst case scenarios, the damage is above the security deposit, and the tenant is
sent a bill for the balance. And when you
have a tenant who is known for his nefariousity, he may not pay it. Then court action to collect the balance would
be necessary. It’s not ideal, but not
catastrophic.
Fortunately, this is very rare. 99% of the time, if there are any pet issues,
they can be taken care of with carpet steam cleaning and a professional
cleaning, which usually need to be done after a tenant moves out anyway.
But how do you protect yourself from a Gargoyle experience? Try these five tactics:
1. Collect a high pet
fee upfront for the right to have a pet on the property
2. Collect additional
security deposit monies
3. Screen the tenant thoroughly
upfront. What kind of pet do they
have? How big? Is it an aggressive breed? What did their past landlords say about them
after they moved out? Was the property
left in good shape or was it torn up?
4. Put a clause in
the lease that if any pet issues arise, the tenant can be asked to remove it
within 48 hours
5. Inspect the
property early in the tenancy to see if the pet is doing any damage
For the most part, pet owners are responsible and will not
adversely affect the rental home.
Tenants have friends and family over to the house (like you) and would
be embarrassed if their house was unsightly and reeked of pet.
Don’t let visions of Gargoyle mess with your head! Take the aforementioned steps to protect
yourself and your pet issues should be minimal.
Brett Furniss is the President & Owner of BDF Realty (Charlotte Residential
Property Management), the trusted real estate advisor for Charlotte
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