Furnished Investment Property with 2nd Hand Furniture

Hi, I am about to move in with my partner and we have both amassed a full house of furniture in our time. My simply idea now is too move my furniture into my investment property as:
  • The timing is right - the current tenant has just given notice to vacate and i could re-lease the property furnished.
  • The furniture is in excellent condition, and of good quality but i don't think i would get much for it if i tried to sell it second hand.

I was interested in any thoughts about how/if I could depreciate these items? I understand that i would need to engage a surveyor, I guess I'm just after a thought about if it is even 'doable'?

The increased rental will likley push the apartment into positive gearing.

Any 'shout outs' for my idea? Positive or Negative, most welcome... The apartment is in a good location in St Kilda East, Victoria... Any idea what i could charge when i currently get $295 pw unfurnished?

Thanks! Pgp
 
We had a prop in Brisbane we did this for, it was on the bus run for the uni but I was most surprised that the furniture made it slightly longer to get tenants (it was in good condition and included fairly new electrical items). But once we got good tenants they stayed a long time, I suppose because of the cost in setting themselves up with their own stuff.

We got a prop depreciation surveyed to give us a report for a few hundred dollars, there was a lot of tax deductibles with the furniture there. The only down side seem to be if something went bust (tv for instance) we needed to replace it. But it didn't happen very often in the 6 years we had it and we claimed all of that on tax too.

However accept that tenants won't look after anything and your furniture will most likely get trashed.

Have you tried ringing 3-4 agents in your area and asking whether they think potential tenants in the area might be looking for this type of rental?
 
Definitely check the demand for your area.

An agent will be able to tell you the difference in rent. It's not a fixed figure.

I have one furnished unit. Tenant was there when I bought it and we have owned it for nearly 4 years. It was FULLY furnished (down to linen and cutlery etc as it used to be a serviced hotel). She has never asked for anything to be replaced or fixed.:D
 
Furnished properties are great.
We have one building (11 units) where we replace everything with new stuff.

The other 2 properties are replaced with everything used.We usually always have back ups in case anything gets broken/stolen
 
I was interested in any thoughts about how/if I could depreciate these items? I understand that i would need to engage a surveyor, I guess I'm just after a thought about if it is even 'doable'?

Yes, you can depreciate them, but you need to arrive at a value for the items as of when you first start to rent the place out. Strictly speaking, the ATO's line would be that you would need to know what you paid for them originally and when you bought them. This helps determine their value when they are put into the rental property. If you've got, for example, a coffee table you've owned for 8 years it might not be worth much now. Of course, many people don't have much idea of when they bought/acquired stuff and what they paid for it, so in those cases people would ascribe a sensible second hand value to the items.

Scott
 
I would say (unless property investment is your full time job) bare minimum is the best.
Less stuff = less breaks = less property management = less hassle
 
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