Platform implemented throughout Castle's portfolio, which soon will reach 12,500 homes in the Southeast
PetScreening, a first-of-its-kind screening platform that empowers property managers to outsource their pet risk assessment and assistance animal validation processes at no charge, has partnered with Castle Residential to implement its platform at several communities across the apartment operator's portfolio.
Castle Residential is a Plantation, Fla.-based property management firm that has more than 12,500 apartment homes under management or in development. The company third-party manages properties throughout Florida and in Nashville, and is currently aiming to expand its overall footprint in the Southeast. After a pilot run, Castle Residential has rolled out PetScreening at all of its South Florida communities and will continue to add the platform to its existing portfolio and to any new communities as they come on board.
"As pets become an even more crucial component in the decision of renters, we want to make certain that we're on the proactive side with regard to our pet processes," said Lindsay Norman, president of Castle Residential. "Tracking pets and managing assistance animal requests on our own put a strain on our teams and wasn't always an efficient use of time, so we were eager to relieve that burden from our teammates. PetScreening has been the precise innovative solution we were seeking, and we look forward to utilizing it at all of our properties."
PetScreening is the nation's only centralized database that analyzes pet-related risk in rental housing. Through PetScreening, a rental applicant enters information about their pets and the platform weighs various pet-related factors, including a community's specific restrictions, such as breed, weight and age, and behavior history of the pet and pet owner. This provides property owners with a streamlined process to comprehensively assess a specific pet and pet owner who want to live at a rental property.
Non-pet owning residents also fill out a free profile to declare they do not own a pet or animal, and that they acknowledge the community rules, whether they acquire, foster or sit for a pet/animal during their stay. PetScreening also uses a team of experts to handle assistance animal accommodation requests for property teams.
"Castle Residential has always had an intuitive leadership team and is growing rapidly," said David Stunja, chief operations officer of PetScreening. "Castle's teams were markedly aware of the rising importance of forward-thinking pet processes and properly tracking and screening pets. We're thrilled to partner with Castle's hard-working onsite teams and look forward to expanding with them as they continue to grow."
