Pets in Rental Housing: A Growing Opportunity for Property Operators By Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty Today, well over half of U.S. households—between 66% and 75%—own a pet. Let’s break that down in the context of rental housing. With approximately 44.5 million renter-occupied housing units in the country, and assuming 70% of these households have pets, that translates to more than 31 million pet-owning renter households. Among those, the average pet ownership per household is 1.6 dogs or 1.8 cats. Using the more conservative estimate of 1.6 pets per household, we’re looking at nearly 50 million pets living in U.S.…
Author: Victoria Cowart
Victoria Cowart
Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty, is the Senior Director of Education for PetScreening. Previously, she was a direct multi-family industry member with extensive experience providing management and oversight for multifamily housing communities, mobile home communities, and HOAs. She is a property management instructor and a proud graduate of the NAAEI Advanced Facilitator Training. Victoria obtained her degree in the management of human resources and then her industry CPM designation. She has served the industry as President of both the local and state affiliates in SC as well as having served as a Regional VP for Region IV for NAA. Victoria has chaired four Committees for NAA, most recently serving as the 2021 Legislative Chair. She is passionate about legislation, education, and creating ease and understanding for industry members. Victoria is a wife, mother, and proud PetScreening pack member.
You May Have More Pets Than People…What Are You Doing About That? By Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty In 2023, there were approximately 45 million housing units occupied by renters. That equated to 34% of US households. One driver of demand for rental housing is the cost savings and the gap between wages and home ownership. Across 50 of the largest metro areas, renting is 37% less expensive than buying a typical home. Add to that, in many of these metros, the “median household income is insufficient to qualify for the median-priced home,” and what renters need in terms of…
Becoming Pet Passionate By Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty Are you acquiring residential rental property and wanting to start on the best foot? Here’s a question that will impact approximately seventy percent of your renters. How will you respond to pets in your rental properties? Will you prohibit pets? Will you become pet-friendly? Or will you push yourself and your success by becoming pet passionate? Available data today says seventy-six percent of the property management industry consider themselves and their rental properties pet-friendly. Contrast that with those seeking pet-friendly housing, with seventy-two percent saying it’s hard to find. Also, consider…
Assistance Animals…A Fourfold Challenge By Victoria Cowart, CPM, NAAEI Faculty In operations, we all feel pressured to have a certain depth of knowledge on critical topics. This pressure rises to another level when the subject touches the work of our on-site, centralized, supervisory, and corporate team members. That pressure increases to a whole new level when it touches the lives of our applicants, residents, and possibly even our guests with disabilities. And if that wasn’t enough, this particular topic makes up approximately 60% of HUD complaints. With that, the pressure for operational knowledge and excellence rises fourfold. I’m speaking of…
Property Management is a Liability Rich Endeavor By Victoria Cowart Property Management is a liability rich endeavor. In fact, the National Apartment Association’s Education Institute (NAAEI) offers a Certified Apartment Manager (CAM) course, and there is one full module on “Risk Management.” It is in fact, a FIVE-hour module. As with all NAAEI programs, the CAM program is worth your consideration. The module covers risk management, risk assessments, and minimizing risks–financial, physical, liability, environmental, employee and more. The most difficult part of risk management, in my personal (non-attorney) opinion as a long-term operator, is seeking out and discovering risk -…
