Home & Condo Rentals Blog
December 28, 2018
Furnished vs Unfurnished Rentals?
Welcome to Home & Condo Rentals’ Monthly blog. This is an informational section of our website to help constantly educate our clients and the public on what we do and ways to improve your rental experience, both from an owner and tenant perspective. This month’s topic focuses on the negatives of renting an annual unit furnished vs unfurnished.
Let us first get this out of the way and let everyone know that all seasonal/short term rentals need to be fully furnished/turn-key properties. Seasonal properties are essentially hotels. It would not make sense to have someone move all their own furniture in, just to move it back out after a few months. People do crazy things, but I don’t know anyone that enjoys packing and lifting heavy boxes enough to do that.
Let’s begin with furnished units. Why would anyone have furniture in a unit that they are going to be renting for a full year? The most common reasons that we have found are:
1.The owners have been using it as a seasonal property and aren’t able to use the property for a year or two so they decide to rent it annually with the furniture in the unit.
2.The second most common example is when someone purchases a unit with the furniture in it and decides to rent it annually for a few years before they can retire and move into the unit.
3.The third most common example is for some reason, people often times think that furnishing the unit helps add value to the property.
It can make sense for someone to keep the furniture in the unit if they are only planning on renting it for one year before they can use it again. It avoids having to move it all out and rent a storage unit for a year and generally, it is much more likely to find someone to rent a furnished rental for only a year as opposed to multiple years. The same point can be made for those purchasing furnished units and retiring in a few years to them. If they love the furniture and they are not wanting to furnish it with their own things in a year or so, then keep it and roll the dice. The third is a common misconception of quite a few people. Furniture does nothing to add value to the home.
Let us now talk about the positives of unfurnished units by highlighting the negatives of furnished units:
1.If you like the furniture that is in the property, don’t rent it furnished because people don’t normally treat other people’s things as well as they would if it were theirs.
2.If someone purchases a home with the furniture in it and they intend on furnishing it with their own things when they are able to move in, then why keep it at all until then?
3.Furniture does not add any value to the property.
4.Furniture adds more to account for when doing your move in/move out inspections as well as more to repair/replace while the tenants are living in the unit. Anything that is in the unit when the tenant moves in is the responsibility of the owner, unless otherwise explicitly stated, to repair/replace if it goes out as a result of normal wear and tear.
5.The last major point that landlords need to think about is the amount of people that are looking for a furnished annual rental. Once again, people that are renting for a year are wanting a home and generally not wanting to live with someone else’s things for a year or longer. We try to locate tenants that are wanting to rent for the longest periods of time (ie: 1 year +) which helps eliminate turnover within the unit which cuts down on lost revenue and out of pocket expenses for our owners.
All of these points help illustrate why it is a better idea to rent annual rentals without furniture.
Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. This is the eigth in a series that we hope will help educate both owners and tenants in the Venice, Nokomis, Osprey, North Port and Englewood area. Once again, if there is ever a question that anyone has, please do not hesitate to call us.
Thanks and have a wonderful day!!
Sincerely,
The Home & Condo Staff
