The Condo/Coop Buyers Survival Guide for People with Pets – Part I

What can be more frustrating, exciting, rewarding, scary, exhausting, and down right daunting than buying a home?  Try buying one when you have a pet – more  specifically – try buying a condo or coop when your room mate happens to be a dog.  The restrictions and caveats are numerous.  At the very least, they will create bumps in the road – that will severely restrict buying options.  At worst they can be a minefield and a major obstacle to home ownership. The extent to which this impacts a buyers ability to purchase a condo/coop is a varied as the individual client and their situation.  Issues, such as the size and breed of the dog, whether one dog or multiple dogs are involved, the price range,  and how well the dog fares during an interview are all relevant variables.

Make no mistake, if your four-footed friend goes “Woof!” and not “Meow!” you are already dealing with severe restrictions. Depending on your price range – having a dog can reduce your purchasing options up to 90%. Although that statistic represents the worst case scenario – it is not a typo.  Westchester, NY is not generally a dog-friendly place to live.  For all practical purposes, the tighter the budget and the larger the dog the more daunting the process.   For the fun of it, I did a simple search of all active entry-level coop listings for White Plains, NY ranging in price from $100k for a studio to $220k.  There were 28 active cooperatives on the MLS in that price range. When the criteria was changed to include pet-friendliness for dogs – those options were reduced to 3.  That’s right – 3!!!!   If you happen to have more than one dog – the options contract to two, one of which is  a fixer-upper. So at this moment in time, entry-level dog-owners have two realistic choices to pick from in White Plains – three if they only have one dog or are willing to entertain major renovations.

The reason for outlining these grim statistics is not to discourage the pet owner. Quite the contrary – my purpose is to encourage – not discourage.  But the process also has to involve a reality check.  The good news is that it is entirely possible for you to keep your pet.  The bad news is that doing so means that depending on your price range and the size of your dog, most of the other criteria on your wish list will probably need to be on the table.   My job is to help buyers find the best unit they can for themselves and their pet while meeting as many of the other criteria on the buyer’s wish list that is realistically possible. But, I can’t pull a rabbits out of hats.  The “perfect home” doesn’t exist under the best of circumstances; but when up to 90% of your realistic buying options have been whacked out from under you – common sense dictates that you are going to have  to be pretty flexible about most everything else.  This doesn’t mean that you have to “give up” on all the extras that are on your wish list, but chances are – some of them will have to go.  It’s all about compromise and trading one amenity for another.  Although it’s sad that it has to be this way, buyers with dogs simply have less negotiating and wiggle room all around. Many feel they should have more options and dig their heels in refusing to be flexible with respect to location, price, unit size, views or amenities.  When that happens, these prospective buyers sabotage their own best interests.  Because resentment doesn’t change the reality of the situation,  you – as the buyer need to keep one thought upper most in your mind:  you are buying a unit for your dog and yourself , not for yourself and your dog.