It’s time for pets to come first!

Hi everyone,

This blog post is likely to be one of the most important I have ever written. It’s about making a stand against something that no pet owner should ever have to experience: surrendering their animal because they can’t find a pet friendly rental property in which to live.

As many of you who have been with me from the start will know, I have battled for a long time with how I could make my ideas for Pet Friendly Rentals come to life. In June this year I developed and released a small but significant piece of software which was the first step towards achieving this goal.

Because of this, pet owners Australia-wide can search for pet friendly rentals across several suburbs in minutes instead of hours, greatly increasing their chances of finding a suitable property. And while I’m happy with this progress, there is still so much more to be done.

With this in mind, I remembered something that a friend once asked me: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid and if you knew you would succeed?” The answer, of course, is that I would take my vision for all that Pet Friendly Rentals could be and give it everything I have (and more).

And that’s exactly what I’m now going to do – once and for all – and my plan is that by January 2009, Pet Friendly Rentals will essentially become my full time job!

What does this mean for Pet Friendly Rentals?

In order for me to be able to give Pet Friendly Rentals the time and effort it deserves, I will need to introduce a one-off charge of $9.95 for people to download the extension. This will help pay for the time it takes me to keep the tool working and to continue to develop it over time.

I’ve also decided to allow other businesses to advertise on the site. The details are still being determined but feel free to contact me if you’re interested as I will only have a limited amount of places available and at this stage, advertising will start on the 1st of November.

I’m also investigating the possibility of selling a limited range of pet products, toys and Pet Friendly merchandise on the site – partly to promote the Pet friendly Rentals brand and mission, but also to help raise the funds I need to devote enough time to this cause.

What are the benefits?

I have such a great vision for what Pet friendly Rentals can become and I know how desperately this service is needed. If the funds generated from all these avenues are enough for me to devote myself to this full time, I will be able to develop the existing extension so it will work with other real estate web sites (not just realestate.com.au) in a fraction of the time it would take if I was only able to work on it in my ‘spare’ time. I could also fulfill my plan of integrating the Pet Friendly Rentals site with features such as ‘Developing your Pet Friendly Resume’, ‘ Viewing my recent listings’ and many other features I have been wanting to introduce.

The software extension aside, there are also many other activities I need to undertake in order to make Pet Friendly Rentals all it can be. This includes liaising with real estate agencies to improve the number of pet friendly listings they make available, educating home owners on the tangible benefits of renting to pet owners, building a national database of pet friendly private homes and carer facilities. And that’s just the beginning.

Many wonderful people and organisations are doing a lot of this already and by using my web development and technical skills, I want to add strength and a new dimension to this important campaign.

How can you help?

I know this move will surprise many people and you can’t underestimate how much I wish I could just do this for free in my spare time, but that choice would come at too great a cost to all those pets out there that need a pet friendly home now… not next week, not next year, but right now. It’s time for pets to come first!

If you want to help me achieve my goal of dedicating more of my time to this vital cause, spread the word about Pet friendly Rentals to renting pet owners everywhere. Together I hope we can help prevent the unthinkable happening to them.

Cheers,
Ryan