How furnished should a rental hse be to maximize monthly rent?

Question

rental rates in OC exceed $2400 per month ( 3 bd/ 2 ba/ ). I am turning my hse into a rental for the next 5 yrs to compensate for the value loss this year (-$100,000). This will be new territory and i need some help with the extent of furnishings necessary to rent as 'fully furnished' and add it to the monthly rental price.

Answer 1

fully furnished will allow you to get more, true, but fully furnished means everything--plates, pans, beds/linens, brooms, towels, drapes, vacuum, maybe a lawn mower? I am a landlord and tried what you want to do--and i'll never do it again. My tenants sold everything they could, then moved out in the dead of night. It is definitely not worth the aggravation, even for the extra bit of money--and if you don't write down EVERYTHING furnished, the tenants can claim the items are theirs. Please reconsider your decision. Better to rent unfurnished, trust me! And if you want to investigate selling under a lease/option scenario, this is how i bought my first property and it's a good deal for both buyers and sellers. A good realtor can explain how a lease/option works--but be prepared for most realtors to dismiss this method as a bad idea--the realtor has to wait for the sale to take place (at some point in the future) and they don't want to wait for their commission. Finally, even though your property has lost value, if you are patient, it will return. If you can keep the property and rent it out (unfurnished) for most/all your mortgage, i'd advise keeping it--you still get the depreciation and the write offs as a result of your house now (or soon-to-be) becoming income property. (i trust you know you can write off much more on a rental property than you can on a primary residence).