In what may be the only published research on the subject, a FIREPAW study found that apartments that accepted pets not only didn't lose money, they actually gained more, to the tune of nearly $3,000 per apartment, per year. Property managers with active pet policies agree.
"Somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of your tenants are going to have some kind of pet, so you can't just say, 'No pets allowed,'" says Fred Thompson, president of the National Association of Residential Property Managers, a trade group. "If you do, you're going to see an extended vacancy period on your investment and that doesn't work out long term.
"Look at it in this sense: If it took an extra two months at $1,000, then … not taking a pet costs $2,000," Thompson says. "Well, $2,000 will pay for a lot of carpet."
Pet-friendly apartments rented in 19 days versus 29 days for non-pet-friendly units in the 2003 study, when 9% of apartments surveyed allowed all pets, 44% limited pets by type or size (most allowed cats) and only 11% allowed large dogs.
"When you have higher demand, you can be more selective and you can actually get better tenants if you allow pets," says Frank, an economist and consultant to landlords on effective pet policy.
In the FIREPAW survey, tenants in pet-friendly rentals stayed an average of 46 months, compared with 18 months for those in rentals prohibiting pets.
The average worst damage from tenants with pets, as reported by landlords in the FIREPAW survey, was $430, an amount typically covered by the security deposit.
The bigger risk? Children. More damage is done to homes/units by children than pets according to the study. It’s obviously illegal to discriminate against kids when renting, but before you tell someone you won’t rent to them because they have pets (but you are renting to families with kids), you may want to review this study and think rationally.
This is Economics 101: Increased demand raises prices. Apartments that allowed for pets were able to charge 20% to 30% more rent than those that didn't allow pets
After subtracting for extra costs, such as insurance, the FIREPAW survey found that the apartments that allowed pets were able to generate, on average, $2,300 more per unit, per year.
For a copy of the study, go here http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=19186150#scptid