Posts tagged "apartments"

If you've ever had trouble finding a perfect pad for you and your dog or cat, you aren't alone. The classified are filled with ads for rentals that sound pretty great until you get to that final line: No Pets Allowed. So what's a responsible pet owner to do in the face of this pre-emptive animal rejection? Get a little intelligence from the other side to find out what landlords are thinking about when they say no to your pet.

I'm a landlord who lives with one dog and three cats, so I sympathize (in theory) with pet owners seeking rental homes where the welcome is all-inclusive. That said, I don't automatically accept pet owners with open arms. Prospective renters must convince me on a case-by-case basis that they are both honest and responsible. If you're looking to rent a new apartment or house, and you plan on bringing a pet or pets with you, here are some tips to help you grease the wheels:

1. Be honest about your animals. Tell me the truth about the number of pets you have and their sizes because believe me, neighbors will report back to owners on this. Dishonesty can lead me to break a lease.

2. Be prepared with extra cash. You may need to put down a larger security deposit or add a premium on each month's rent. If this comes up, feel free to negotiate with the landlord as these charges are extra.

3. Get ready for show and tell. Invite your new landlord to your present home. Even if you do some last-minute tidying, the landlord will get a good idea of the existence or absence of stains, smells and scratches.

Now that we're married, Anna and I are almost ready to start looking in earnest for a pooch. But first we have to find a new apartment. You know the song: "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes an apartment run by a landlord forward-thinking enough to allow dogs."

We're ready to say goodbye to our tiny apartment in Hoboken, because it doesn't have nearly enough room for all the loot we acquired at the wedding our future canine friend. We also want to be closer to Anna's work, a solid 30-minute drive outside of New York City. Suburbia, here we come!

Some landlords and real estate brokers we've come across aren't too keen on pups. Plenty of desirable apartments don't permit pets, or else only permit cats. (If anything, I'd think they'd be less likely to allow felines, as cat pee is absolutely impossible to get out of carpets and floors.) One broker said that if we want a dog we will have to settle for a "bottom tier" place.

Hogwash! According to a study commissioned by the Pet Savers Foundation a few years back, it turns out that people with pets actually make for ideal tenants. They stay longer, are willing to pay more and don't cause nearly as much damage to units as, say, children.

New York City is the place to be for fashion, theater, fine dining -- and, it turns out, is also a pet-friendly city. The housing rental website Rent.com recently released a list of the top 10 pet-friendly cities in the U.S. The Big Apple takes the top spot, with cities from North, South, East and West rounding out the list.

Rent.com president Peggy Abkemeier told Paw Nation that her company combed through thousands of pet-friendly rental listings to find cities with a significant percentage of cat- and dog-friendly pads for rent. "Of the Rent.com listings in Charleston and Austin, 98 percent are pet-friendly," Abkemeier told Paw Nation. Next, she and her team looked at other pet criteria such aspublic parks, doggie daycares, pet-friendly restaurants and off-leash beaches.

Abkemeier said that these days, the rental climate is pretty welcoming to pet owners around the country. "In fact, 80 percent of our national inventory is pet-friendly," she added. And as property owners deal with vacancies linked to the economic downturn, some are becoming even more flexible in their pet policies, she said.

Unfortunately, not all landlords are as charmed by our four-legged friends as we are. Abkemeier offered some tips for sweet-talking a potential landlord and landing the perfect pad.

• Ease landlords' worries by ensuring that your rental insurance will cover any pet-related damages.
• Show landlords recommendations from your current landlord or neighbors who can vouch for your pet's good behavior.
• Offer up written evidence of vaccinations and obedience training, so your potential landlord knows your dog is healthy and won't keep the neighbors up all night.
• Introduce your potential landlord to your pet. Abkemeier says that landlords often bend the rules when they see how sweet and well-behaved your pooch or kitty is in person.

To make things easier for cat- and dog-lovers, Rent.com lets you search a list of more than 20,000 apartments and homes where pets are welcome, and not just in the cities that made the top-ten list.

Did your hometown make the list of the most pet-friendly cities? Take a look at the top ten, then let us know what the pet climate is like in your neighborhood!

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