How to Pick the Right Pieces for Your Furnished Rental Home

by Zac Kandell | Updated: Dec 20, 2019

If you’ve decided to furnish your rental property, you now have a whole other set of problems. It’s not easy to pick pieces for a furnished rental, but you have to do it. What furniture do you get? How do you pick between all these different choices? We can help. Keep these things in mind while trying to pick out what pieces to furnish your rental with.

Choose quality over quantity

You need to furnish a full rental home, but you also want to make sure you have furniture that’s going to last. Try to get down to the smallest number of pieces you can, and then make sure to buy really good quality versions of all of them. The better the furniture you buy, the less you’ll need to repair or replace it.

Get items that are easy to clean

In addition to well-made items, you want ones you can easily clean. Stains, scuff marks and other little things can make a place look shabby. Easy to clean furniture means you don’t have to spend as much time cleaning or repairing the furniture to put it back out on the market.

Make sure the furniture photographs well

Pictures are always important for getting a renter’s attention, so make sure the furniture photographs well. Try different arrangements and color schemes to see what works best. It can always be moved by the renter later, so pay more attention to how it looks in photos when you’re between tenants.

Go with neutral aesthetics

Don’t buy something that fits your personal style. You’re trying to cater to as many people as possible, so inoffensive is the best way to go. The last thing you want is a quirky style that turns away as many people as it draws in.

Match the area the home is in

Is there a furniture style that is more common in that area? Follow that if you can. This is especially important if you’re renting a vacation property, where renters expect to feel like they’re at the beach or in the woods or whatever place you’re renting out.

Try living in it

This should sound obvious in retrospect. Try spending some time between tenants living in your rental property if it’s at all possible. Notice what’s missing or where you have some problems living with just what’s already there. This is better than any other method for telling you exactly what you need to add to your rental to make it appeal to potential renters.

Make sure there’s good lighting

Lighting is easy to get wrong and has a large negative effect on the living experience when you get it wrong. Make sure you have more than just a single overhead light in each room. Also either provide lamps or have good, obvious places to put a lamp to give better light to each room. Try asking your current or previous tenant what they did to improve the lighting and try it for yourself.

Have storage space for unwanted furniture

Not every tenant is going to want to use all the furniture you provide. You should keep some storage space in case they want something taken out of the unit. Help them remove it and then put it back when they move out, with a cost for moving it if necessary.

What you should provide

If you’re still wondering what you’ll need, here are some ideas. You should try for everything here. If you can’t, here are the pieces you should have for each room, roughly in order of top priority.

Bedroom

  • Bed with a headboard
  • Nightstands
  • Dresser
  • Chair/bench/desk

Living room

  • Couch/other seating
  • Coffee table
  • Lamp tables
  • Entertainment center
  • Bookcase

Kitchen

  • Table and chairs/bar stools with counter
  • Small appliances (microwave, toaster, blender)
  • Silverware and dishes
  • Cookware (soup pot, sauce pans, skillet, broiler pan)
  • Kitchen tools (mixing spoons and bowls, spatulas, tongs, can opener, vegetable peeler, knives, cutting board)

Dining room

  • Table and chairs
  • Buffet/credenza

The extra money you can make from a furnished rental is appealing but means you need to make a lot more decisions. Getting the right furniture can make a big difference, so spend the time and effort now to save you a lot more trouble later.

Categories: Renters

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