Looking for a rental? Your dog better be good … and probably small
By Gina Spadafori
April 30, 2007
In the ultra-tight New York City housing market, even “pet-friendly” buildings have their standards, according to the NY Times:
Their new landlord is requiring [John] Comas to include only Bogie’s age, breed and weight in the lease. While Mr. Comas found cheaper apartments that didn’t allow pets at all or pets over a certain size, he said it was worth paying $400 to $500 a month more in rent to give Bogie a comfortable home.
“If all things remained equal, I would pay more for the pet-friendly building,” he said as Bogie calmly chewed on a pig’s ear among moving boxes in the living room.
Mr. Comas is part of the universe of renters and buyers who are paying more money to find buildings that welcome dogs. Because of the strong sales market in Manhattan, co-op and condo boards have been able to be pickier in every way, demanding higher incomes from buyers and better manners from dogs.
Renters are having an ever-harder time because they are facing one of the tightest markets in seven years, and building managers are becoming stricter about pets, particularly dogs.
While the Miller Samuel appraisal company calculates that 93 percent of the apartments advertised for sale in Manhattan say they allow pets, brokers say that pet-friendly buildings have grown stricter. Increasingly, they limit dogs by their breed, weight and personality. They also make the “dog interview” a contingency for acceptance.
Almost 20 years ago, I remember what an overpriced hell-hole a friend of mine had to compete for in San Francisco so he could keep his dog. (He had to offer even higher rent and deposit to get the place.) The situation hasn’t gotten better since, I’m sure. His experience is the reason I first jumped into home-ownership: I didn’t want a property owner making decisions about my pets. Best decision I’ve ever made, bar none.
The Denver Dumb Friends League coordinates a program to help facilitate more pet-friend rentals. So does the San Francisco SPCA.
The biggest problem is irresponsible owners. They can cause serious problems.
Comment by Steve — April 30, 2007 @ 11:26 am
Good owners are a dream though.
Comment by Steve — April 30, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
At the vet’s the other day, the bulletin board contained an ad for an apartment complex with the prominent notation “Pet friendly!”. In this tightening housing market, I thought that was a smart marketing move on the part of the apartment complex. And it will be so nice for someone stressed out with looking for a place to live that at least one place is making themselves easier to find.
Comment by Pat — April 30, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
it’s also getting increasingly hard to find a motel that takes dogs. Many so called “pet friendly” motels have weight/size limits. Or they ask for a $20/pet fee. Or a $150 NONrefundable deposit.
Comment by pitbullEmily — April 30, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Hey let me tell you it’s pretty simple if you can convince your landlord you are a first rate responsible pet parent you got it made.
Thats whats they are looking for.
Comment by Steve — April 30, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
Gina,Did u get Heather’s test back? Hope She is O.K
Comment by Mary Ann — April 30, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
It’s bad for both pet-owning renters and apartment buyers in Sydney, Australia.
A couple of years ago I tried to buy an apartment in a new block, and at the 11th hour failed to get permission in the contract for my dog to live with me, so the deal fell through.
The sweet part of it was that the property market took a dive, and the place was for sale for another year, dropping in price by 20%. And then the owner’s body voted to make the block pet-friendly. So the developer lost well over $100K by rejecting my dog.
My dog, is an apartment owner’s dream: totally clean, doesn’t bark or howl, doesn’t jump up to scratch fixtures. Oh yes, and he’s a 150lb malamute.
Comment by Mike — May 1, 2007 @ 6:16 am
Sorry, sorry if I’m posting this late or someone has already provided information. Just got on computer after waiting all morning for 2 different repair men who have still not shown up and it is past noon. Last night I saw bloggers commenting on a WDIV news program but it was already past 11:30pm when I read this. Too late for me to check. This morning I emailed channel 4 and just now checked my computer for a reply. Go to http://www.clickondetroit.cm/i.....index/html. There’s a video on an undercover news story that will really anger everyone. Guaranteed.
Comment by VJ — May 1, 2007 @ 9:38 am
Steve, years ago when I was looking for a rental with my dog, I never got the CHANCE to “convince your landlord you are a first rate responsible pet parent”. The minute “Will you accept dogs?” came out of my mouth, that was pretty well the end of it.
It was kind of a fluke when I finally DID find a place. A guy said he knew someone building a small townhome complex and he was a dog lover and needed tenants pretty soon. So I called him, and even though he’d intended to have a “no dogs” policy, he changed his mind after talking with me.
Of course, that set a precedent, and he then accepted other tenants with dogs. And even though I was a good tenant and incurred NO pet-related damage, another tenant that moved in around the time I was moving out had a dog that was every landlord’s worst nightmare and - you guessed it - that was the end of that for “Dogs allowed” as far as that landlord was concerned.
So I agree that it’s important to be a responsible dog owner. But how do you get that presented to prospective landlord’s who just don’t want to hear it?
Comment by Pat — May 1, 2007 @ 10:13 am