Should you let your tenants have pets? (Rental Property Investing)

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I think another huge amenity that really works. And you got to decide if you want to deal with this, right? Dog parks.

What do you think about dog parks?

Chase Leavitt

I think it's better to have a dog park where it's sectioned off with fences versus not having one. So hopefully you can kind of control where the dogs go because a lot of tenants that we've noticed, they're gonna come with pets or dogs or animals, right. And so, if you can control where that goes because we know what dogs like to do, right, doo, doo, doo doo. And so a lot of times you can't help that the tenants are gonna take their dogs out or maybe they're gonna see it happen or not see it happen, but dogs are gonna go to the bathroom in places and so if you can control where they go and where they hang out, that's gonna help hopefully.

Sherida Zenger

That same American Fork project does have a dog park that is fenced and it works well. There's another one that we did up in Idaho. Same fence dog park right across from the clubhouse. It's actually kind of cute. It has little toys and stuff, like little ramps and tunnels they can run through yet it's kind of funny.

Steve Olson

People ask all the time, should I take tenants with pets to my property?

We've kind of just accepted that. You have to. People want to bring them. And if you say you don't take them, a lot of those tenants are gonna bring them anyway. You get to find out about it, you have to find them, it's gonna be stupid. So make yourself pet-friendly, have that, that dog park.

I was doing some vetting on a project in Texas once I went out with our broker down there, john, great dude. And we toured a couple of these properties. And this leasing agent, this was like five or six years ago, I thought she was literally joking, I thought maybe she's got a really dry sense of humor kept telling me about how they DNA test dogs. And there, like, you literally collect DNA and send it into a lab. And, yeah, and so now we do that almost across the board, you can bring your pet, but they're gonna have to submit a sample.

When we go to the random spot check, we send that in, there's no way to lie about if it was you or not, and then you get fined. And, and because yeah, you do bring in those dogs, you got to do it. But it's expensive, handling this situation. And if somebody knows they can get DNA tested, they are probably a little more likely to clean up after their dog.

Sherida Zenger

And I think that makes it nice for the rest of the tenants. If you don't have a dog knowing Hey, we can hold some people accountable.

Steve Olson

And you got to put those doggy stations, right. I'm president of one of the HOA boards right now. And yeah, we've had to install extra doggie stations and trash cans. I think that's another big, big thing...