We’re thinking about renting out our house (condo townhouse) sometime in the next year so we can do some extensive traveling. We would sell it, but that’s not possible in the current market. Anyway, a lot of the furniture in the house is stuff that we would not move to a new city, if we were to move permanently. So we were kicking around the idea of renting it out partially furnished.
I know that’s a more common practice on the international scene, but I’ve almost never heard of it in the USA. I only ever came across them during college. (Granted, we are in Portland, OR, and there are a large number of recent post-college immigrants showing up in town nowadays, who might actually need a place with some furniture. )
So what do people think? Is partially furnished a bonus or a drawback? We’d prefer not to go to the trouble and expense of moving/storing/selling/throwing out furniture if we don’t have to… But we don’t want to hurt our rental chances, either. (It’s also occurred to me that better renters–like stable young families, as opposed to a collection of unrelated, unemployed college grads–might be more apt to want an unfurnished place that they can really nest in. So that’s another consideration: quality of renter we’re likely to attract.)
It depends on how you feel about your furniture. We rented out our house in Montreal furnished when we moved to England. We left almost everything in the house including electronics because the renters were from Australia and it saved them having to buy tvs, hairdryers etc. They went through the house first and asked us to remove a few things that they did not want to be responsible for. It worked out reasonably well except that now that I have my farmhouse dining table back, I can see very clearly where their children did their homework with nothing underneath to protect the table. There are also a few bits and pieces that appear to be missing but managing a rental from so far away, I think we came out of it ok.
On the other hand, we rented partially furnished places here in London for the first 5 or 6 years and by the end I had returned almost everything to the landlord as it was all pretty much butt ugly and I got tired of living with the junk they thought qualified as furniture.
Eta…it depends on what type of renter you are looking to attract. We were an established family with a full house of furniture we collected over the years that we liked so living with someone else’s stuff wasn’t really our thing.
I see furnished/partially-furnished rental offerings on Craigslist in my area all the time, and not just in college towns. So really, whatever is easiest for you would be ok, I think. There’s always the risk that they’ll mess up your stuff, though, so I wouldn’t leave the grandma’s tea service or the heirloom baby grand piano behind.
Related story: when I was 13, my mom invited a bunch of her internet friends over for an extended stay (a few of them were living with us for at least a year). One of them was a lady with her 6 y/o kid, and I still get bitter when I think about him running a red sharpie up and down the white keys of our piano. >:[
I was in a similar situation when I rented my condo last year – I put “furnished or unfurnished” in the ad and didn’t say anything about a difference in the rent. My plan was to not charge extra for the furniture, we didn’t really need it and my husband didn’t want to move it, but I wanted to reserve the right to charge more if I felt like it.
My experience was that renting “furnished” attracted a lot of people who were looking for short-term leases. To be fair though I was renting in a college neighborhood (ie, walking distance to campus) and at the start of the school year, so who else would be looking. This was a bit of a pain since my building does not allow 12 month leases, OTOH it did significantly increase interest. I didn’t get the sense it turned people away who already owned furniture – most of my callers did want furnished or semi-furnished but I think that’s just who was looking at the time. There were a few people who had their own stuff but were perfectly willing to use my stuff it if wasn’t going to cost them extra. And this was in a 1BR condo, so not a lot of space to store 2 sets of furniture.
Actually the person who rented it did have some stuff of her own. She used my furniture and left hers behind for the person she sublet to.
I suppose a few items of furniture that fit nicely into an apartment’s nooks and crannies might be helpful but I personally would be completely grossed out to use a bed or couch or any porous, material that has been used by someone else. There is no way to know how clean it is, what has been ‘spilled’ on it before and I wouldn’t want to put my face near it. So, I wouldn’t include anything like that. I’ve seen a lot of furnished apartments for rent that provide some really crummy furniture - futons, mattresses on floors, etc. Many renters are professional adults and have grown out of the ‘college student’ phase of crap IKEA furniture that is provided in these places.
The only time I’d ever consider renting a furnished apartment, would be if the furniture is much nicer than my own.
Some years back when we considered renting out our house, we discussed this with our agent. We lived in an area where short-term rentals for relocating executives was in demand, so furnished would have been an advantage and rents for short-term contracts were higher, but there was a risk of the place being unoccupied for long stretches. It depends on the local market, so talking to an experienced rental agent is a good place to start.
Long term rent - unfurnished
Short-term/vacation home - furnished. They’re around, most notably at homeaway, vrbo, and related or similar websites. Yeah, the websites take their cut, but provide some protection (and advertisement). Up to you whether its worth it.
Sounds like you might be going for medium-length - several months at a time, but not indefinitely. So it might be a tossup depending on what direction you lean.
Most definitely nothing that you’re attached to. But I’ve rented a good dozen or so of these homes and never had any problem with gross furniture or previous guest problems. Granted they could’ve been brand new as far as I know.
If a vacation home, you should supply wireless internet and laundry at least, IMHO. The former is becoming expected, and the latter is nice for tenants but also makes your/your cleaning crew’s lives a lot easier. Other amenities depend on the location. Sounds like you could have a mix of interests depending on how you advertise it.
Typically, the fridge is stocked with whatever the previous guests left. In other words, the landlord is not expected to provide food, condiments, or spices.