Rent my condo furnished vs. unfurnished? (Seattle: apartment, rentals, HOA)

[cgm0221]

Hi, I own an 800 sqf condo in downtown Seattle (SLU, near Amazon) and I'm planning to move abroad for about a year and I want to rent out my place. I'm debating whether to rent out my place furnished (perhaps for 6 month leases?) or unfurnished. Does anyone have a sense of how much demand there would be for longer-term (6+ month) furnished condo rentals in this area? Will I get much more rent? Will my vacancy rate be high?

Unfortunately my HOA doesn't allow Airbnb. Going with furnished will help me save on storage costs and furniture replacement costs once I move back to Seattle.

Thanks for any insight you guys have!

Mike

[jribe]

Originally Posted by cgm0221

Hi, I own an 800 sqf condo in downtown Seattle (SLU, near Amazon) and I'm planning to move abroad for about a year and I want to rent out my place. I'm debating whether to rent out my place furnished (perhaps for 6 month leases?) or unfurnished. Does anyone have a sense of how much demand there would be for longer-term (6+ month) furnished condo rentals in this area? Will I get much more rent? Will my vacancy rate be high?

Unfortunately my HOA doesn't allow Airbnb. Going with furnished will help me save on storage costs and furniture replacement costs once I move back to Seattle.

Thanks for any insight you guys have!

Mike

i really wouldn't count on getting more for it.. I would just list the place and say furnished is available..

[IslandCityGirl]

I agree with jribe. You won't likely get more rent for a furnished place. It's not out of the question, but it's not very likely. Instead, you'll want/need to take a higher deposit to protect your stuff. As a Seattle landlord who has rented partially furnished places, I recommend that you not count on your tenants (even great tenants!) to return your furnishings to you in the condition you leave them in. A year isn't a terribly long time to amass wear and tear, but you might be surprised. Assess the cost of storage vs. replacement of your items and think about how much of a deposit you'll want to ask for to protect your belongings.

If I were you, and if it ends up being worth risking the condition of your furnishings, I'd offer the place up with the option of either furnished or unfurnished, then customize your security deposit amount to reflect whatever furnishings are left in the condo.

If you're going to be gone for a year, I'd also shoot to fill the place with a 1-year lease. Trust me, you don't want to be dealing with a turnover in tenants while you're stuck abroad. Even without that issue to deal with, make sure you either hire a property manager or have a trusted friend or family member who is on point to deal with emergency repairs and the like, while you're gone.

Good luck!

[Kayela]

Island City Girl gives good advice. We rented for year from a couple that had gone overseas, and completely understood that's the max time it would be. That was great with us, we wanted to try out that location and see if we liked it (ended up buying a place in the building next door). However I wouldn't have wanted it for six months, or to have to put all of our own stuff in storage and live with someone else's taste in furniture. We would have avoided furnished places.

I guess it depends on what kind of tenants you want. 6 months is a little long for someone just looking for a short-term place due to relocation, but not long enough to make it worth the hassle of picking up and moving again. Plus if you're going to manage it from overseas, do you really want to mess with walk-throughs, cleaning, changing keys, etc?

[CrazyDonkey]

Why not try to see if you can swap condos/apts (including furniture) with someone from where you want to live? Put anything of personal value in storage, but insure the rest with appropriate insurance.

[multizip]

Hello Mike,

When are you looking to move abroad? How much would rent be?.. . It all depending on date of move but I am interested in the information of your apartment, furnished. 4

Everything is depended on a test pass but long story short my husband and I would be moving cross country, selling all that we own and going in one car. I would take care of any existing furniture being that I am an interior designer. I am interested no information and on a tight budget bc. of " going by faith" to see what the next chapter in life is.

Leaving sunny Charleston for Seattle.. I hear there is still palm trees?! (Chinese palm...Rumor has it .. if it's a lie dont' t!ell me!)

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by multizip

Hello Mike,

When are you looking to move abroad? How much would rent be?.. . It all depending on date of move but I am interested in the information of your apartment, furnished. 4

Everything is depended on a test pass but long story short my husband and I would be moving cross country, selling all that we own and going in one car. I would take care of any existing furniture being that I am an interior designer. I am interested no information and on a tight budget bc. of " going by faith" to see what the next chapter in life is.

Leaving sunny Charleston for Seattle.. I hear there is still palm trees?! (Chinese palm...Rumor has it .. if it's a lie dont' t!ell me!)

It's not a rumor about palm trees. They grow here. I've got a Chinese Windmill palm in my front yard. Pretty tall, too. There are a couple of other varieties that also grow here. They're not common, but the Chinese windmill palms are plenty cold hardy.

[RVD90277]

I rented a furnished apartment when I first moved here. I didn't pay any more for it and the furniture was a bit old, etc. but it was nice from my perspective since I was still selling my old house and the rest of my family had not moved here yet. But it was relatively short (around 3 months).

It was actually a nice setup in that the condo that I rented was a 2 bedroom condo but the owner put all of his stuff (valuables, personal, etc.) into one bedroom and he kept that locked. It was rented as a 1 bedroom and it was nice.

In this case, the owner had a job that could work from anywhere and he was fairly flexible. He took the $1800/mo that I was paying him and used it to live overseas where it's warm and when I told him that I was ready to move out (it was month to month), he made plans to fly back to Seattle. I think it was pretty smart of him to do that to fund his travels.