I have a client right now who just put his home up for lease.  After just one day we got a prospective tenant who wants to lease the home, but they have dogs.  This particular home is about ten years old and has the original carpet so it is pretty beat.  There is a very small backyard with a small bit of sod and some annuals around the edges.  The homeowner is concerned that the dogs might damage the backyard and/or the carpet.  Well the carpet is already beat so that is a non-issue.  The tenants would be putting down $5800 as a security deposit plus $500 as an additional pet deposit.  The homeowner decided to turn them down and wait to see if a family without pets wants to lease it.  The dog-owning tenants were ready to pay him 3K  month immediately.  By turning away these folks he could potentially loose 3K a month as it sits vacant, not leased.  Is the homeowner missing the point?  3K immediately in the pocket would more than make up for  any damage by the pets… (but really how much could it cost to put down new sod and annuals in a backyard not much bigger than a postage stamp?)  The monthly loss by keeping your home vacant needs to be considered when you are a landlord.