Looking for a pet-friendly rental home? Look no further.

When choosing a home, we often already know what aspects of that home fall under our must-haves and what are just nice-to-haves. For pet owners, selecting a rental home that also welcomes our furry family members falls decidedly in the former category. After all, pets are more than just companions—they’re family.

At Imagine Homes, delivering exceptional experiences to our residents extends to these family members, too. And to help you get a better idea of what our pet policies are, we sat down with Director of Operations Jordan Wilson to talk a bit more about this topic.

Has Imagine Homes always been pet-friendly?

Even before I joined the company, Imagine Homes was already pet-friendly. I’m a pet owner myself—my home is a bit of a zoo with three dogs, birds, fish, and most recently, our snake. I’ve always just loved animals. There are obviously a lot of people that are maybe not as extreme, but who also love animals and have pets.

When you have a pet, your pet is part of your family. So obviously, it’s a deal-breaker for someone if they love an apartment or a home that they want to rent, but they can’t bring their dog. That’s a non-negotiable item. It’s like saying that you can’t bring your child into your new home.

Naturally, since we’re thinking about how we want to provide best-in-class experiences, we want to avoid telling someone that they can’t bring their child. We want to allow pets. But beyond wanting to do that, most companies are going to be pretty restrictive when it comes to pets.

There are weight restrictions and breed restrictions; often there are pet limits—which are restrictions in terms of the types of pets people can have, and how many people can have. We have some of those limits, of course, within reason.

Can you elaborate a little on those limits and how Imagine Homes has a little more wiggle room in terms of allowing pets?

We have a pretty open pet policy. We don’t have weight limits, we don’t have breed restrictions. But we generally do a screening on animals that are coming in, to make sure that they’re not going to be an issue. Otherwise, we’re pretty open to allowing people to have pets in the home.

Again, that comes back to how we feel that pets are part of the family and we’re not going to stop someone from bringing a family member with them into our homes.

We always want to be pet-friendly, and while we have some restrictions, we allow more than what most companies do. That’s informed in part by the fact that we own the homes that we rent out to people, which affords us some flexibility.

In cases where things lie a little bit outside of our standard policy or where the kind of pet in question isn’t well defined, we are happy to have a conversation. We’re always willing to work with people. What happens there is that we speak with our ownership to make a recommendation in allowing a certain pet depending on the situation.

Can you go more into what restrictions are typical within the real estate industry?

In general, if properties even allow pets, they’re only going to allow cats. Or if they allow cats and dogs, dogs have to be less than 25 pounds, or they can’t be certain breeds that they deem aggressive.

There’s certainly a liability factor that I can understand, which is why some companies err on the side of caution, and just completely restrict certain breeds. I have a Doberman, which would be classified as an aggressive breed. But he’s the sweetest dog you would ever meet if we were just in the building and walking around. He’s friendly, and some people come up to him and pat him on the head; there’s no issue.

In places like Chicago for instance, pitbulls are restricted because they’re also seen as an aggressive breed. You will see a lot of them in shelters and people will adopt them, but there is that impression and that’s unfortunate. There’s a lot of work being done to try to reverse that image, but most people will say: “That’s an aggressive breed. We’re not going to allow that.”

They’re fantastic dogs, and, sure, they can do damage if they do attack someone, but they won’t unless there’s no other alternative. Generally, that doesn’t happen and they are very sweet. So while there is a stigma that exists with some dog breeds (like pitbulls), we don’t buy into that.

Again, within reason, we’re always willing to work with people. If there’s something that is maybe a little bit out of the ordinary, but will still be safe for someone to have at their home, we are open to having a conversation about that.

It does come down to maintaining the integrity of the property. That’s why most companies, when they allow pets, they have a weight restriction.

The general assumption is if you have a bigger dog, they’re potentially going to cause more damage, which is often the opposite. It’s often the smaller dogs that end up chewing on walls and bigger dogs are usually pretty relaxed and they’ll just lie around. The weight of them doesn’t create damage to the apartment on its own—not to say that they can’t, but generally it’s not an issue.

What restrictions does Imagine Homes have in place?

We do have a restriction on the number of pets, which is a maximum of 3 per unit; and we also have a restriction on aquariums. We allow up to 60 gallons because if you have a large aquarium, especially if it’s on a first or second floor, there’s a weight issue. 120-200 gallons of water is very heavy. When you add in the stand, decorations, and filtration—all of that adds a lot of weight.

We have this consideration in place because some of the homes, particularly in Pittsburgh, were maybe built in the early 1900s. These homes were just not designed to support that type of weight, especially if the tank is not leveled properly. Too much weight can damage the floor and can even crash the aquarium down into the floor.

Another thing we consider as well is the higher risk of leaks or breaks. 60 gallons of water is a lot of water, but 200-300 gallons of water becomes potentially catastrophic.

Overall, we try not to be restrictive. We have policies in place, based on best practices in terms of limiting potential risk of damage to the unit. But outside of that, if someone has a pet, and it’s maybe a little unusual, but it’s in no way going to be a threat to anyone’s safety or the condition of the home, that’s something that we can have a conversation about.

Thank you for explaining all that. One last thing before we let you go: any final words or memorable anecdotes that you’d like to share with our readers?

Well first, to reiterate again: as a company, we strive every day to deliver best-in-class experiences. We work hard to be a little bit better than we were the day before and we want everyone that interacts with Imagine Homes to really be wowed by the experience.

Like I said, pets are part of our residents’ families. We want to make sure that the residents feel that we are treating them that way. Their pets are not just another animal that is living in the home. They’re family.

And maybe as an anecdote, in Cincinnati, our Head of Resident Services, Vita has her dog, Sammy. Often when she meets with a new resident who is also a dog owner, she’ll bring Sammy along as part of the welcoming party to help them feel comfortable and feel at ease.

For a dog in a completely new environment, who may not quite understand what’s happening, playing with a new friend puts them at ease and makes coming into that new environment a bit more comfortable.

Experience all of the benefits and advantages of homeownership—in a rental.

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Talk to our team—we’d love to know how we can help.

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