Welcome to short-term rental riches will discuss investing in real estate but with a specific focus on short-term rentals quick actionable items to acquire manage and scale in your portfolio I’m your host Tim Hubbard.

Thank you for turning in and again I’m happy you’re here really important topic this week on pets something we’re all going to encounter whether we allow pets or not in our properties so I want to talk about that this week the pros and cons whether you can charge for them how do pet proof your property if you do want pets and some of the opportunities behind that because there is a lot of opportunity for allowing pets some things you might want to put in your house rules to just a general overview of pets and are short terminals for you to enter that though why I’m back here in Columbia and I left Brazil last week I flew back to the US actually to sign some paperwork for an 8 unit apartment building finally closed on in Oklahoma so I’m glad that one went through and I was staying with my buddy well I I met up with one of my buddies I should say in Miami and I swear he had the cutest dog I’ve ever seen in my life I mean it was like it was like a real life teddy bear has just it was so calm and he just he just kept back into for a little attention and wrist seriously adorable so I like pets I like that’s a lot actually I don’t have any at the moment because I do travel a lot and that makes a little more complicated and I actually don’t allow them and all of my properties I haven’t really needed to because I’ve been staying booked but I think I might be missing out on a lot of opportunity and increased revenues increased occupancy so it’s something I’m exploring that’s we’re gonna talk about so the pros of having pets in your property well not that many people allow pets so you have like an instant occupancy booster. Right if someone’s traveling with their pets then they have way less options last time I heard it was less than like 30 percent of the listings on Airbnb allowed for pets and it’s actually a search parameter that they can put in there so it’s an easy way to boost your occupancy to accept more potential gas and along with that boost in potential occupancy can also charge pet fees now that you can’t charge pet fees for all pets we’re gonna talk about that next week the difference between service animals and emotional support animal they are different and we have to be very careful that we’re treating each of those scenarios differently so we’ll talk about that next week stay tuned for that but for now let’s just assume that someone’s coming to your property they said they have a pet and you can charge pet fees fall that is an increase in your revenue writer potential increase so we have that option now and then this next pro you might not think it’s a pro but but I think it is a lot of times we have guests come with pets dead aren’t supposed to be coming with pets right so if we already allow for pets were not going to have someone sneaking in with the pad and have a big surprise when we open up the apartment maybe there’s more hair or something like that in there or it takes longer to clean so they’ll be less kind of sneak in and we’ll be better prepared to handle pets so. Right N. along with those lines. Are the cons and yet there is a little more to note when we’re dealing with the animals right they can be dirty they can ruin furniture they can scratch things they can go to the bathroom in your property and believe me I have seen some rental property so my own rental properties as I was doing due diligence and walking through some of the units it’s crazy what pets can actually do to unite if someone’s lived in the unit for a long time and they’re not. Very clean hot man I’ve been in unit seriously that I own still this day but that meant completely renovated because some of those urine smells just would not go away so that is one of the cons that’s one of the easiest one thing to talk about how we can improve our apartments are our rentals are vacation homes a little better to prepare for that but that is one of the cons in that’s an obvious one also if we have back to back bookings any of a guess the checks in with a Pat because you allow pets and there’s a little bit of a lingering smell that can affect the guests checking in right afterwards we use an ozone machine that really helps to clear out some some bad smells actually gets rid of pretty much any snow you can find it on Amazon although it’s not available in all states but it’s only like 150 Bucks and you can leave it in a unit for about 30 minutes and it really gets rid of odors and smells so if you are accepting pets or you’re planning on it I would plan on getting one of those as well another con it’s probably gonna cost you more to clean ordered and should write because it’s gonna take a housekeeper longer now not everyone’s animals on everyone’s pets or you know leaving a lot of hair behind this unit that my my buddy’s little cute dog I mean a thing was tiny and fit a little little birds but you know the bigger the animal a lot of times the more hair and potential damage you could have on your property so a couple times those are pretty obvious so couple pros couple times pros increase potential revenue and occupancy cons increased wear and tear on your property increased cleaning expenses. Hey hope you’re finding a ton of value in these bite sized actionable podcast episodes if you want to go deeper though much deeper than we can in the few minutes we have each week we can check out my S. T. R. playbook and rest methods.com clearly my guide my playbook for what I’ve done to acquire multi $0 portfolio of dozens of short term rentals and how I currently operate them it’s my best practice guide I know you’ll find a lot of value in it if you want to go deeper thanks for tuning in again and let’s get right back into this week’s episode. Some expectations some things to consider to put in your house rules if you want to have pets at your properties you can put a weight limit in your house rules now again these house rules are not going to apply to service animals we’re gonna talk about service animals and emotional support dogs in the next episode but for now let’s just assume that you’re allowed to filter out your guests and and their pets and so some things you might want to put in your house rules is a weight limit so maybe only want the small little dogs or the cats or whatever it is whatever size it is and you don’t wanna 0 pound great Dane in your property you can put that in your house rules how many pets do you allow in your house rules you want someone this one had the Max or are you okay with someone bring in 3 dogs you can add things like do you allow the pets to be on your furniture and if you don’t we know that our guests are reading everything so I would put it your house rules but I would also put it noted in your property now that might be a hard one to enforce right because we can’t monitor the inside of our properties but it can’t hurt having some additional notes you could require or you could ask because depends again on the type of animals visiting modes assume you’re allowed to ask questions you can ask if the dogs vaccinated if it’s been treated for fleas and you can put these things in your house rules you can ask if the nails have been clipped stuff like that stuff that could potentially cause damage to your property you can also ask them that if they’re not there that the dog remain crater that the animal it stays in a crate something like that so couple things to consider about your house rules now there’s things that we can do to make our properties more resistant to animals the way we set them up I think the biggest one is probably the flooring that were used in so if you have a house that’s fully carpeted animal or pet goes to the bathroom on your carpet. It’s much easier to stay in carpet and we even older than it is a hardwood floor for example but not all hardwood floors or laminate floors are created equally so if you’re at the point where you’re renovating your property you’re considering making some updates or your property already has a floor that you think would work well for pets will take a little closer note some of the laminate floors for example that the plank style some have a little gap between those planks and if an animal goes to the bathroom if it urinates and that can get down through the gaps in those planks some laminate floors or vinyl plank which I really like the really resistant have basically no gap that’s not allow anything to penetrate so take note on the type of floor that you’re using also take note on do you have toxic plants in your property do you have really tight corridors where it’s gonna be harder for an animal to kind of move around through there so just take note on the way your property’s laid out if you’re planning on accepting pets or you’re already accepted them they should be things that you’re thinking about some things that we can really do to make our property more appealing to gas to right we can put in photos of dog food bowls or doggie treats and have like a welcome pack for pets I think that would go a long way pride gets some stellar reviews you can have a little doggie Homer Kitty Homer that scratchy things that the kids use of the cats use so you can check that place out with some pet friendly flair a case you could call it something that’s going to track the pats since contract those potential owners to your property so one other thing that you very likely want to put in your house rules to is that the owners clean up after their pets so I would recommend leaving some doggy doo bags are some bags to pick up after your pets but you want to have that your house rules to if it’s outdoors or whatever it is however. You want to set up begin to have that in there so it’s just a little easier clean up and your guests know what to expect or what you’re expecting of them I should say couple other things you might want to keep in mind is having some extra cleaning supplies on hand for your guests if one of their pets happens to go to the bathroom on a couch be good idea to have some spot removers medicinal cleaning supplies you also might want to add in some. Net guide options Izzard dog park nearby errors or specific area of your property where you prefer that the owners take their animals or pets out to use the bathroom while those are all things that you want to put in there in detail as clearly as possible okay so now on to the topic of charging fees and asking for reimbursement if an animal damages your property and that part of it actually is gonna be pretty similar to the way we would ask for compensation of a gas damages are property so we wanna make sure that we take photos we have evidence we submit them to Airbnb or B. R. B. L. wherever our properties listed as soon as possible and we ask for compensation so an Airbnb that’s going to be either through a resolution or through their air cover now we also want to make sure we have a deposit on our properties in a for allowing for pets you might want to consider increasing the deposit a little bit but every me I actually has the ability to charge additional pet fees now so I think that’s great and if you have a guest staying with you that is an owner maybe their hosts themselves they’re gonna be much more inclined to pain these these pet fees right especially if they don’t have to pay to the board there had somewhere the same time and remember there’s a lot of opportunity accepting pets right I can’t imagine my buddy levy that little cute teddy bear dog at home for too long if he was traveling and so if you have an animal that you can’t leave it home for a long time well then you’re not gonna leave home for a long time you’re not going to stay in a rental for a long time so by allowing pets we have a little more opportunity to attract longer term stays now you might want to consider if it is a gas that’s going to be staying for quite a long time that you have something in their checking up on them for example we have our month lease is are any stay over a month we have a little clause in the. That says that we’re going to to check on the property once a month you might want to do it quicker than that but just something to consider and a good expectations that with your potential gas so I think there’s a ton of opportunity with properties that allow for Pat’s there some properties that are better set up for pets and it’s something that I’m exploring I’m going to be turning some of my units over to allow for pets and monitor that and see how that all plays out so if you don’t already allow pets at your properties I’d consider it and next time we will make sure that we discuss the difference between service animals and emotional support dogs because there are some situations where we cannot deny a pet no matter what there’s some situations where I guess doesn’t even have to tell us if they’re bringing a Pat so there’s a lot of legality around that and I want to break that down for you next week so until next time I hope you have a wonderful week thanks again for tuning in and I will see you soon cheers. I want to get on the fast track to financial freedom for short term rentals what all searching the properties you choir you want to make sure that you acquired the right properties I want to give you my E. book that will show you how to do just that there is no charge to my gift to you for being one of our subscribers just go to restmethods.com that’s R E S T methods.com.

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