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Ask any onsite property manager how they feel about pet and ESA applications and you will hear some version of the same answer: it takes longer than it should, and it is rarely anyone's favorite part of the job.
That feeling is backed up by the numbers. A typical ESA application takes about 62 minutes of staff time from start to finish. That includes verifying the license number on the state board, confirming the letter directly with the healthcare provider over two calls and two emails, notifying the resident of the outcome, collecting vaccination records and animal details, and entering everything into the property management system. A standard pet application, without the license and provider verification steps, takes about 20 minutes.
On a single application, neither number sounds dramatic. The problem is volume.
A portfolio of 10,000 doors processes roughly 188 new animals a month, about 63 ESAs and 125 pets. Run the math and that is 106 hours of staff time every month, or 1,275 hours a year, which is close to 0.6 of a full-time role spent entirely on manual pet and ESA administration.
Because the process takes this long, teams cut corners. Some properties blanket-approve ESA requests rather than run the full verification. Pet fees get charged inconsistently from one site to the next. Animal records go missing when a manager who kept them in a personal folder moves on. None of this is anyone's fault individually. It's what happens when a 62-minute manual workflow meets a leasing office that is already at capacity.
The cost shows up in places beyond the clock, too.
Property managers report that the least enjoyable part of the job is often the confrontation: telling a resident their ESA letter doesn't meet the standard, or that an animal needs to be reclassified as a pet with a fee attached. It's not the paperwork itself that drains a team. It's the paperwork plus the difficult conversation that follows it, week after week.
For regional managers, this shows up on the NOI report as a slower, quieter problem than a maintenance backlog or a leasing shortfall, but it compounds the same way. Every hour a site manager spends chasing a vaccination record is an hour not spent on a lease renewal or a prospective resident tour.
The fix isn't necessarily working faster. It's removing steps from the workflow entirely: automated license verification, provider confirmation handled by a dedicated team, and one dashboard instead of three systems. When the manual steps disappear, so does most of the time, and so does the friction of enforcement, because someone else is making and communicating the determination.
Disclaimer:
For informational and educational purposes only. Not legal, financial, or professional advice. Figures are illustrative estimates and actual results will vary. Please consult your own advisors before making business decisions.
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