February 23, 2019
Homes with Soul – pet friendly rentals
If you’re renting with pets and have struggled finding pet-friendly rentals online, you’ll love the newbies in the real estate market – Homes with Soul – a platform dedicated to pet-friendly rental properties in Australia.
Homes with Soul brings both private and agency listed pet-friendly rentals into one convenient place, best of all, it was inspired by a beautiful story.
The website’s founder shared an inseparable bond with her rescue dog – no words could give justice to how much he meant to her. In 2016, she decided that after several years living in the same pet-friendly rental, it was time to find a bigger place. It had been a while since she’d tried searching for a new home, so she was surprised to discover that the very few available pet-friendly rentals were scattered across so many different websites, making them hard to find.
It seemed that property managers liked using large real estate platforms to advertise their properties, while landlords listing privately preferred more affordable options like social media groups. She also noted that some listings on the larger websites didn’t mention their stance on pets or just had the words “pets considered” in their description. This meant that those properties couldn’t be captured by search filters (making things unnecessarily time-consuming) and tenants often had to call agents just to ask, “is it pet-friendly”. Definitely not ideal when agents are out at inspections during the day and don’t have time to respond. She found the experience very depressing and the thought of not being able to find a home just because of her furbaby made her feel anxious about their future.
Her dog was such an important part of her life, family, and home – so she had no intention of going anywhere without him. She eventually found a new pet-friendly home but felt inspired to help others going through the same. So in May 2018, she launched Homes with Soul, a website dedicated to both private and agency listed pet-friendly rentals. A place where landlords and agents could be encouraged to give responsible pet owners a chance (based on the merit of their application) and where tenants felt comfortable about being completely upfront about their pets from the start. It’s such a simple concept, but one that could significantly improve the online experience for tenants with pets and nurture trust and transparency between pet owners, landlords, and property managers.
Show your support by Signing up to search for a pet-friendly rental (it’s free!) or even just to stay in the loop! Let’s all get behind Homes with Soul and help them catch the attention of pet-friendly landlords and agents across the country!
