How is the Market for Furnished Rentals?

How is the Market for Furnished Rentals?

In the Northern Virginia area, we find furnished rentals predominately in the Arlington/Alexandria or Tysons/Dulles areas where there are more government contract or short-term contract employment positions. In the Prince William County area, less than 1 percent of available rentals are offered as furnished.

Over the past 12 years, managing 400+ properties, we have only managed three properties that were offered as fully furnished.  While we cautioned those three landlords about the low demand for furnished properties, we were able to match tenants to those properties and keep those vacancies filled.  We’ve found a few scenarios that have worked for furnished properties:  a divorcing couple where the spouse that is leaving the home is doing so without furniture but wants to live nearby to stay close to the kids; a family that has been displaced by a fire and needs 9-12 months for their home to be rebuilt; or a home-buyer that is waiting for 9+ months for a new home to be completed by a builder.  

Given the limited number of scenarios that usually lead to interest in a furnished rental, we suggest that our landlords offer their properties unfurnished.  The expense associated with storing or selling/donating the furniture is usually offset by the financial benefit of renting the property more quickly by offering the unfurnished option with the higher level of demand.

The offered price of rental listings in our service area is assumed to be based on the unfurnished option.  When we have rented out fully-furnished homes, they have ended up being priced at the same rate as similar sized unfurnished homes, with little or no increased income for the furnishings.  When we have attempted to advertise properties at a higher rate because of the added benefit of furnishings, the higher price took those properties out of the search range that tenants were looking for and therefore those properties did not get the online exposure needed to attract interest.  

While we do continue to manage furnished properties, we discourage landlords from considering this option based on the limited interest and therefore there longer time it takes to procure a tenant and the delay in getting cashflow started.

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