Choosing to rent a property fully furnished can be financially rewarding, but every piece of furniture and fixture you provide carries the risk of wear, damage, and theft. When you provide items for a tenant to use as part of their lease agreement, you’re responsible for fixing and replacing those items. Replacing décor and furniture can be costly. Poor choices can load you up with constant repairs and can even cause legal disputes at move-out.
When you choose the right furniture, you’ll experience fewer maintenance calls and your furnishings will last between multiple tenants. Selecting your furnishings strategically can save you thousands of dollars over the long term.
1. Use Risk Management as your Baseline:
While aesthetically pleasing furniture is nice, your choice of furnishings should be initially based on lowering your risk rather than pure comfort or visual appeal. Renters don’t always take care of their homes the way an owner would, and that mindset changes how they use the furnishings they’re provided.
Don’t treat your furnished rentals like a branding exercise. Aesthetic upgrades don’t usually survive tenant turnover. This is where hiring a professional property manager can add value to your rentals. Property management companies have data on what works best with furnished rentals and can guide your decisions based on actual outcomes. For example, Green Residential, a Texas property management company from The Woodlands, helps local investors run profitable rentals, including furnished units, by prioritizing durability and cost control.
2. Avoid Personal Taste Bias:
You’re more likely to overspend when you furnish a rental unit as if it were your personal residence. Tenants want function over design statements. Sleek and trendy interior design is risky. Spending too much money on customizations and fancy designs will increase the cost of replacement without creating any extra revenue.
3. Prioritize the Basics:
Avoid over-furnishing your rental property. Keep in mind that you’ll be legally responsible for repairing and replacing any items included in the lease. To keep it simple, provide functional essentials like beds, seating, tables, and basic storage. Avoid decorative lighting, specialty furniture, sculptures, and fancy artwork.
4. Choose Materials that can be Abused:
Select your furnishings based on worst-case use. Tenants will move furniture around, spill drinks, overload storage, and use items in ways that can be considered abuse. You want materials that perform well under extreme use. Resilient and washable materials reduce the need to replace furniture frequently and make disputes over wear vs. damage less likely.
Here are Your Best Choices:
- Hard flooring. Carpet typically needs to be replaced every 5-7 years, while vinyl plank and tile flooring can last 15-20 years. Hard flooding also reduces your cleaning costs and allergen complaints. Without carpet to destroy, you won’t have to worry about a tenant disputing security deposit deductions or a move-out bill for carpet replacement. Even when you can prove a tenant caused the damage, if they drag you to court, it will cost you money.
- Solid wood and metal. Avoid wood and metal composites. Solid materials can withstand repeated movement better than particleboard or fiberboard. Durable materials will ensure furniture maintains its structural integrity throughout the tenancy and, hopefully, through multiple tenancies.
- Stain-and-water-resistant finishes. In rental units, most of the damage is done in the kitchen and bathroom. It’s crucial to have moisture-resistant finishes on cabinets and surfaces.
- The materials you choose will determine how often you’ll need to repair or replace furnishings in your rental property. Choose furnishings that can absorb impact and random spills to avoid the cost of excessive replacements.
5. Make Sure the Financial Return Makes Sense:
Renting a furnished unit can be profitable. Many landlords charge around 10-20% more per month for a furnished property under a long-term lease. For short-term leases, you can charge 40-50% more. However, you need to consider the cost of acquiring the furnishings and décor and calculate how much profit they’ll provide. If your furnishings cost more than the extra revenue you’ll collect in rent throughout the tenancy, renting a furnished unit becomes a liability.
6. Only Supply What you can Afford to Lose:
Every item you include in a furnished lease is a potential loss due to damage or theft. Some tenants won’t hesitate to take a coffee table or couch when they move out. Only furnish the items you can afford to lose if something goes wrong.
Furnish for Comfort and Longevity:
You don’t need to offer high-end furnishings to get renters. You can create a cozy living space while prioritizing durability. To reduce losses and preserve long-term returns, treat all furnishings as part of your business strategy, not a lifestyle upgrade for your tenants.
