What To Provide In A Furnished Rental Property
When you become a landlord for the first time it can be daunting knowing what you should include in your rental property if you are renting it as a fully furnished property. It can also be difficult distancing yourself from your personal tastes when it comes to furnishing the property.
Bedrooms
Bedrooms are fairly straightforward. Basic furnishings are bed, wardrobe, drawers and a desk or dressing table with chair. A mirror may also be recommended if there is not one already included in the wardrobe. The bed that you choose should fit the room comfortably and the mattress should be easily replaceable without replacing the whole bed if any mattress damage does occur.
Living Room
The living room shouldn't be over-furnished in a rental property. A sofa, armchair, some kind of unit for your tenant to place their TV & DVD on and perhaps a coffee table should suffice. When choosing the sofa and armchair, go for hardwearing fabrics that can be easily cleaned. Furniture that can be re-covered is also a good option.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms don't require a lot of furnishing but good lighting, a basic bathroom cabinet and some kind of towel rail should be provided. There should be a mirror and shaving light also in place. You may also wish to provide a toilet brush as this is something a surprising number of tenants neglect to buy when they move in.
Kitchen
It's easy to get carried away in the kitchen, filling it with the kind of kitchen equipment that you would choose for your own kitchen. It pays to step back here and look at the kitchen in a more measured way. When kitting out anything in the kitchen you need to think about what replacements will be required when changing tenants in the property. It's inevitable that there will be breakages in a kitchen. It happens to everyone. If you buy crockery and cutlery that only comes as part of a large set then when you go to refil the kitchen between tenants you will either have to shell out for a complete new set or pick cutlery and crockery that doesn't match. The same goes for pots, pans, glasses etc. Buy simple classic designs that are widely available and individually available. If you do this you should minimise the outlay on the kitchen for each occupation of the property.
You may also wish to include a basic dining table and chairs here or in a dining room.
Walls
It's likely that as part of your rental agreement you specify that tenants cannot damage the walls with picture hooks and drawing pins. In order to allow your tenants to personalise the property you can help them out by pre-populating each room with plenty of generic pictures and more importantly picture hooks in the walls. Your tenants will most likely make replacing the pictures one of their first tasks after moving in but if there are enough hooks available already your walls should suffer no more damage.
Windows
It's up to you whether to go for blinds or curtains. If you do choose just blinds, it may be a good idea to fix curtain rails to the wall as well so the tenant can choose to hang curtains if they wish.
Furnishing a rental property need not be difficult as long as you think like a landlord and not like a homeowner.
Bedrooms
Bedrooms are fairly straightforward. Basic furnishings are bed, wardrobe, drawers and a desk or dressing table with chair. A mirror may also be recommended if there is not one already included in the wardrobe. The bed that you choose should fit the room comfortably and the mattress should be easily replaceable without replacing the whole bed if any mattress damage does occur.
Living Room
The living room shouldn't be over-furnished in a rental property. A sofa, armchair, some kind of unit for your tenant to place their TV & DVD on and perhaps a coffee table should suffice. When choosing the sofa and armchair, go for hardwearing fabrics that can be easily cleaned. Furniture that can be re-covered is also a good option.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms don't require a lot of furnishing but good lighting, a basic bathroom cabinet and some kind of towel rail should be provided. There should be a mirror and shaving light also in place. You may also wish to provide a toilet brush as this is something a surprising number of tenants neglect to buy when they move in.
Kitchen
It's easy to get carried away in the kitchen, filling it with the kind of kitchen equipment that you would choose for your own kitchen. It pays to step back here and look at the kitchen in a more measured way. When kitting out anything in the kitchen you need to think about what replacements will be required when changing tenants in the property. It's inevitable that there will be breakages in a kitchen. It happens to everyone. If you buy crockery and cutlery that only comes as part of a large set then when you go to refil the kitchen between tenants you will either have to shell out for a complete new set or pick cutlery and crockery that doesn't match. The same goes for pots, pans, glasses etc. Buy simple classic designs that are widely available and individually available. If you do this you should minimise the outlay on the kitchen for each occupation of the property.
You may also wish to include a basic dining table and chairs here or in a dining room.
Walls
It's likely that as part of your rental agreement you specify that tenants cannot damage the walls with picture hooks and drawing pins. In order to allow your tenants to personalise the property you can help them out by pre-populating each room with plenty of generic pictures and more importantly picture hooks in the walls. Your tenants will most likely make replacing the pictures one of their first tasks after moving in but if there are enough hooks available already your walls should suffer no more damage.
Windows
It's up to you whether to go for blinds or curtains. If you do choose just blinds, it may be a good idea to fix curtain rails to the wall as well so the tenant can choose to hang curtains if they wish.
Furnishing a rental property need not be difficult as long as you think like a landlord and not like a homeowner.
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