- We here at SmartEgg are animal lovers and Austin is a pet town! We welcome pets. It’s your decision, though, whether or not you want to accept them but please know that if you say no to pets you are most likely decreasing the pool of potential tenants by quite a bit since approximately 70% of renters have pets. It has been our experience that homes take longer to rent when pets aren’t accepted.
- We mitigate the risk by having applicants fill out a third-party pet screening application and collecting a pet deposit for each animal. The pet screening company evaluates risk based on factors such as type, breed, size, age and status of vaccinations. They come up with a risk score, called a FIDO score (cute, right?), and rank animals 1–5 paws (also cute). The pet deposit we collect varies from $350–500 per animal depending on their FIDO score. It is rare for damages, if any, to exceed the security and pet deposit funds we have on hand.
- If you do accept pets, we’ll need to know if your insurance company has any size or breed restrictions, so please be sure to find out and let us know. SmartEgg will otherwise accept any size or breed, as we believe it is the pet owner who determines the behavior of the animal and not the size or breed.
- Emotional Support Animals (ESAs): ESAs are not considered pets and, as such, we can not deny people who have them, even if you have a no-pet policy (except in rare instances that have to do with hardship to you—please contact us if you believe that applies). We also can not collect a pet deposit. The tenants are nonetheless responsible for any damages the animal incurs and we can use the security deposit to cover them.
- You may be aware that ESA certificates are easy to buy online, even though those certificates are bogus and invalid. Our third-party pet screening company verifies all ESA requests and determines if they are legitimate. If the animal turns out not to be an ESA, the tenant may still have the animal (if you accept pets) and then is given a FIDO score and pays a pet deposit.
