It may sound barking mad, but apparently people are buying multi-million dollar apartments and picking up high-priced rentals based on their pet dogs, which they bring to showings.
Since 2011, rental listings advertised as pet-friendly increased from an average of 1 percent of all listings to about 8 percent of listings, according to data compiled by StreetEasy for DNAinfo.
The same is true in pet-friendly apartment sales, which increased from 0.2 percent of listings on average in 2011 to between 4 and 5 percent by early 2016.
“When you bring a dog to a building you get a vibe about how tense or relaxed you’ll feel when living there,” Jessica Cohen, a Douglas Elliman broker who owns a Yorkshire terrier, told DNAinfo.
Nadine Hartstein, an agent with BOND New York, told DNAinfo that a buyer recently brought her dog to a listing on the Upper West Side “to see whether her pet approved of the place, but more importantly to sniff out any unpleasant spirits.” [DNAinfo] —Christopher Cameron