1st time renting - furnished?

[groperfish]

Hi all,

My wife and I have a 2 BR apartment in Brunswick, Melbourne. It is our first humble 1st home and we wil eventually return to live in it, most liekly. We are heading overseas for 2 1/2 - 3 years (maybe more), leaving this January.

Wife wants to rent our place 'fully equipped'. I appreciate the difficulties of doing this (limiting market, additional work, etc). She wants to try, nd who am I to argue? She wants to advertise on an overseas 'sabbatical' website, and gumtree. She isn;t so worried about getting a rental agent.

My Q's are:

- Doeas anyone have any advice (including reasons against we may not have considered);
- Should we definately get a rental agent? We have family here who could potentially help us organise repairs, inspections;
- Can anyone recommend an agent who specialises in fully equipped/furnished;
- Are there any websites where you can advertise your home to overseas professionals (ie: sabbatical.com)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

[The Y-man]

Depending on the market you aim at: remember to factor in "wear and tear" (ok, incredible wear and tear as well as items going missing). Do a full inventory list and have the tenant sign off.

Also factor in "repair" - i.e. if any of the furnishing breaks, you need to have it repaired/replaced quickly

Make sure you are familiar with tenancy law

http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/hous...utm_medium=feature-links&utm_campaign=renting

Make sure you know how to lodge the bond etc.

Insurance - you will need contents insurance as well as "run of the mill" landlord insurance

The Y-man

 

[sanj]

How do you intend to manage a fully furnished and equipped property while overseas?

 

[Jake D]

I'm with Sanj,
If you're going to be out of the country, get a property manager.

 

[Ed Barton]

Family will promise the Earth and deliver Uranus.

Just go for an unfurnished rental and get a PM.

 

[groperfish]

I agree, a PM is probably required. Any suggestions for inner north Melbourne?

Is the general consensus that unfurnished is the way to go?

Thanks again for the replies.

 

[westminster]

I agree, a PM is probably required. Any suggestions for inner north Melbourne?

Is the general consensus that unfurnished is the way to go?

Thanks again for the replies.

You can charge a premium for furnished and I guess as you might be thinking you will save on storage fees for your furniture whilst your away - you'll just need to store all your personal items/knick knacks.

For apartments there is a market for furnished rentals but as a rule Property Managers will charge more for looking after them so you need to look at your sums and see if the higher charges negate the increased profit for charging more.

Some local real estate agents will handle furnished rentals or you can go the more corporate route, ie Corporate Keys etc. The level of finish is generally higher for the corporate types though.

I think it is worthwhile investigating. Talk to some local agencies and find out what they think it will rent for furnished and unfurnished - do the sums on their fees for both.

 

[tgan]

Family will promise the Earth and deliver Uranus.

Just go for an unfurnished rental and get a PM.

Love this quote! sooooo true!

Definately get an agent. Last thing you want is to be chasing family to follow up with your rental property. At least with agent you can be firm in your approach without feeling guilty and they know the laws alot better than family.

 

[mattysavager]

I almost always recommend leaving properties unfurnished.

Furnished properties can attract premium rents if they are in an area that appeals to young urban professionals in town for business. City fringes & family suburbs = bad idea.

If you do furnish, take all but the big pieces. Tenants do not want your decorative vases, 35 mis-matched coffee mugs, old magazines etc.

Another thing that many owners don't consider is that all inclusions must be maintained in good repair. i.e. - if your washing machine/iron/fridge breaks down while the tenants are in the property, you need to purchase a new one ASAP. If you don't get around to it soon enough, the tenant can claim for a rent reduction for the period that they didn't have that service provided.

Also - I love my furniture and spent too much money on most of it. I don't like my closest friends being near my sofa/rugs with a drink in hand, and I would definitely not be able to cope with the thought of a tenant body slamming my things whilst I was overseas.

That's just me though. If you're prepared to come back to a 50% reduction in how nice your things are, then go for it. Otherwise sell what you don't need and pack the rest into friend's garages.

And get a PM, especially if you decide to leave it furnished.

 

[Lil Skater]

I'd get a PM if you're overseas.

I've managed a few fully furnished properties and they can be a pain in the bum, plus most agencies will charge extra for it as you have to count absolutely everything at the property - every fork, spoon, container, glass etc.. Kitchens take forever to do inventory for!

Fully furnished tends to attract companies/professionals who will be working in the area for a year or two, and more tend to go for right in the middle of the city then a bit on the outskirts. So you may have a longer vacancy period.

Also if it's your personal furniture, do you really want it back after some/many randoms have lived there for 3 years? In particular, your mattress!

I'd either sell up, or store personally. You may find the costs to store the furniture a similar to repairs/replacement on furniture there, and increased vacancy..

 

[Jen_PFR]

You basically need to be able to cope with the fact that you might come home to all your furniture etc being in a condition that either requires replacing or is noticeably shabbier. This can be a major issue if you're leaving your own, handpicked furniture in the property.

The whole place will also need a paint. We usually paint our properties at least twice a year each.

Both these things, at the very outset, need to be factored in to your costings.

I wouldn't dream of doing furnished rentals without a property manager you can trust. We're very lucky in that my father in law steps up when we go away. That said, he has the keys to the properties in case of emergency only - we don't go away for longer than a week at a time, and make sure when we do go away, we don't have any rental turnovers (ie. one lot of tenants moving out and the new lot moving in). So far, touch wood, we haven't had to call on him to sort out any disasters.

I can imagine that a professional property manager would charge an arm and a leg for doing fully furnished turnovers. Everything needs to be checked, and more often than not I have found myself (for example) washing every single item in the kitchen - all cutlery, crockery, pots and pans, glasses, mugs, you name it - as, while the tenant considered they were 'clean', I didn't. I don't think it's fair to charge a premium to rent a fully furnished property and have new tenants move in to find dried food stuck to plates, pots not clean, glasses with lip and finger marks all over them, etc. Then there's the linen - every single item needs to be carefully checked to see if stains need to be treated, or if the item actually needs replacing. This is on top of washing everything anyhow.

Some stuff to think about, anyhow. I can tell you that the only way furnished properties work for us is because we invest a hell of a lot of time into the mundane and boring side, as described above. If we paid others to do it, it wouldn't be worthwhile for us, the cost would be prohibitive.

 

[Jen_PFR]

Lil Skater, great minds think alike!! We were obviously both writing our posts at the same time