Pet-friendly Rental Properties Could Give You an Edge in the Colorado Springs Rental Market

Landlords: are your rental properties pet-friendly?  Whether or not to accept pets in your rental properties is often a difficult decision for many rental property owners.  However, there are hundreds of tenants looking to lease your home, many of them are pet owners and if you do not offer pet-friendly rentals, you could be missing out!

Your rental home is an investment.  You want your rental property to make you money, not be a costly headache.  However, do the benefits of offering pet-friendly housing outweigh the possible negatives?

Do pets really cause more damage than they are worth? These decisions aren’t to be made lightly, but in a highly competitive rental market it’s important to consider your options. You might just discover that by allowing pet owners to lease your rental home, you could not only gain an edge in the rental market, but your return on investment might surprise you.

Why you should consider making your Colorado Springs rental home pet-friendly

One of the benefits of offering pet-friendly housing is the bigger pool of available renters.  The more renters interested in your rental property means reduced periods of vacancy, longer-term tenancy, and possibly higher rents.

There are a lot of former homeowners that have entered the Colorado Springs rental market over the last several years. Many have relocated to Colorado Springs from other parts of the country and are looking to lease a pet-friendly home until they find their dream home.  Others do  not want the maintenance hassles that go with home ownership and prefer to find a long-term rental.  These former homeowners often have established income, strong credit histories, and multiple family members that often include pets. For your rental property to be an option for these well qualified pet owners, you will need to allow pets.  Just having your property listed as “Pet Negotiable” to make a case by case decision can increase the number of showings of your property. You can then decide if you are willing to accept a small dog or cat for the right tenant and get your home off the vacancy list and generating income.

The most common reason landlords are fearful of renting to pet owners is the notion that pets cause damage. While it is very true that pets can, and have caused damage to rental properties in the past, a study completed by www.firepaw.org found that on average landlords were making more profit from their rental properties that do allow pets versus those that do not. What you can also notice from this study is that even in the properties where the pets did cause damage, the damage amount was often less than the additional security deposit required from the renter. When you combine this with the possibility of collecting higher rents as a pet-friendly rental property, it makes sound financial sense to seriously consider pet owners as possible tenants.

Lets say you are completely set against having a pet at your property. If you are managing the property yourself, you will need to look up the local laws on Companion and Service Animals. You may not be legally able to deny pets under those situations. You must also consider the chance that a potential tenant will try to bring a pet in without authorization, and hope you don’t notice. The best solution to these two issues is to find a professional property management company to handle your rental. Merit Co Property Management will perform quarterly property reviews of your leased home to insure only approved pets are at the property. We also can qualify all documents to make sure you are properly following the Colorado laws regarding Service and Company animals.

Colorado Springs Property Management Services

If you would like to speak with our property management team about managing your Colorado Springs rental properties, or if you are renter looking for a pet-friendly rental home in Colorado Springs, Woodland Park, Fountain, or other areas of the Pikes Peak region we would be happy to assist you.  Please contact us at: (719)593-9068. You can also fill out our contact form to have one of our qualified real estate agents contact you.  

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