Two Dogs OK. Three, not so much.

February 6, 2008 11:29 AM

How easy is it to find apartments in the Bay Area that would welcome our three dogs?

Mrs. gilgamesh and I are relocating to San Jose in a couple of months and from the initial research I have done, it looks like most apartments allow a maximum of two dogs. We have three (a husky and two small mutts). Are we setting ourselves up for a hard time finding a place to live, or am I just looking in the wrong place for multiple pet friendly places?

posted by gilgamesh to pets & animals (6 comments total)

This will not be easy. We had a hard time finding a place to take one large (>90 lb) dog and two cats. You'll have better luck looking for a small house owned by an individual, not a rental company. There are lots of really boring, soulless suburbs around San Jose. If you can swing it, look west, toward Mountain View or Palo Alto.
posted by libraryhead at 11:39 AM on February 6, 2008

2nding libraryhead....it will not be easy. You may want to look on Craigslist and hope to find owners that are especially dog friendly.
posted by gnutron at 11:45 AM on February 6, 2008

Be prepared to pay a double security deposit plus the first month's rent - for us (one dog, one cat) this was almost $7000. Ouch.

Prepare pet resumes that show how responsible a pet owner you are, and how good of tenants you and your pack will be. Address things like what you'll do with the dogs when you are at work (hopefully a dog walker or doggy daycare so they wouldn't be home alone and barking for hours - this is how a landlord might see it), how you'll take care of the yard, etc. If possible, provide references from a former landlord or from people who know your dogs to be well behaved and non-destructive.

Ditto the idea of looking for a house to rent owned by an individual, not a property management company. Although as I recall from our housing search, there was a place called "Scotch Hollow" around San Mateo (an apartment complex) that prided itself on being particularly pet friendly with no weight restrictions.

If you're out here visiting, try spending time at a local dog park and asking folks for leads. You might catch someone about to move out of their dog-friendly place that could give you a heads up.

Good luck...looking for housing out here is hard for folks with no pets.
posted by handful of rain at 12:24 PM on February 6, 2008

You could probably swing it more easily in Morgan Hill if that's not too far.
posted by rhizome at 12:28 PM on February 6, 2008

Adding a self-link to another AskMe response I made about the same topic.
posted by handful of rain at 1:14 PM on February 6, 2008

You'll have better luck with a house or duplex than an apartment, I would think. Look in East San Jose and South San Jose . East San Jose has some crappy neighborhoods, but some decent older suburbs as well. It remained more rural for a long time after the north and downtown developed, and in some places still has a bit of that sensibility.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:16 PM on February 6, 2008