Long-term rentals are always unfurnished. All of these tenants have their own furniture so if there is furniture already in the property, then the tenants have to rent a storage unit and it costs them a couple of hundred dollars extra to rent their home, effectively pricing the owner out of the market. Usually, that alone gets the point across, but if they still need more, I tell them most people are more comfortable using their own furniture vs someone else’s, there’s a good chance it may not match the tenants style/décor, and if there’s any damage to the furniture, it’s extremely difficult to assess the cost to a depreciating asset.
See also our post on Risk Management with investment property.”
3-6 month leases are just not something we do. Sometimes I’ll discuss the pros and cons of short-term vs long-term, not promoting one over the other, but back-dooring them into realizing there’s more stability in the long-term.
We just let owners know that we can’t insure their belongings so if something happens we have no recourse for seeking monetary damages.
I can totally understand your motivation to rent the property furnished. I mean, the furniture is already there and you don’t have a need for it when you move out. But, I do want to let you know that our experience shows us that renting a furnished unit actually decreases the number of potential tenants who will consider the property. There are just fewer people looking for furnished units. And thinking long term, we can’t maintain the furniture like we can the rest of the house. We can paint walls and clean carpets, but the furniture would just get older and less valuable each year.
Pricing for long term management is 8-10% whereas short term furnished is closer to 20-35% of the rent.
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