The median, non-refundable, pet deposit is $300, with a range of $100 – 600, and an additional monthly per pet rent of $50.

What if there was a service that rental property managers and owners trusted with crafting a customizable pet policy into potential tenants’ application agreements?

Value proposition:

Instead of deterring all pet owners from entering into leasing agreements with corporate landlords, potential pet owner tenants could be reviewed by a third-party service that would evaluate the tenant-pet family as high or low risk. In exchange for a fee per application, a rental property owner or manager would receive a “credit score” for pets and pet owners.

Market Share:

Of all US households, there are 36% who have on average at least 1 canine family member and 30% who have on average at least 2 feline family members. That’s a sizable population of canine and feline companions in the US alone.

Market Slice:

For Boulder, CO, there are 15k dog-households who are currently hit with the fees listed above and another 12.5k feline-households (overlap unknown). Conservatively speaking, let’s assume the total number of pet-owning households to be 15k (all dog-households are also feline households). Now let’s assume that 20 % of pet owners are high-risk situations for rental establishments, that leaves us with 12k responsible pet owners who are getting hit with crippling fees because of the cost associated with lease agreements with the 20% of pet owners who are irresponsible.

How much does a cat pissing on the carpet or dog crapping on the carpet actually cost a rental property? ….

Why not reward reduced-risk behavior with lower or omitted fees? What if there was a way to qualify pet owners into a residence community? A fair PetScore that modeled the risk associated with owner and pet behaviors would benefit properly trained pets and owners with good behavior. No more judgement by specie, but by behavior.