Should I partially furnish my home? This is a question that gets asked about every other time I meet with an owner.
The short answer is no
The long answer is are you prepared for what that entails?
Leaving a home partially furnished generally comes down to an owner's desire to leave something they feel may fit, do not want to move from the house, or do not want to pay for the storage of. However leaving personal property in your home can have other assorted costs.
Responsibility. when you leave something in the home and the renter takes it over you are financially responsible for that object. Let's say you leave a couch in the basement, after some rainfall moisture gets in the basement and causes mold or structural damage to the couch. You are responsible for replacing that couch with a new couch of equal value.
If you leave an old A/C unit for the window, and that A/C unit dies then you are going to be responsible for purchasing a brand new A/C unit of the same model. Leaving things behind leaves more potential problems that you may need to address
Valuation. We love our stuff (evidently not too much if we it behind) but we assume people will find the use in it and enjoy it. The reality is we have no idea who is going to be looking at the property, some people will see an large oak bed frame and value the property higher, some people will treat it as a deal breaker. But one thing is constant; almost all tenants looking to stay in a property for a year or more want to make the place their own. Leaving your stuff behind in the properties makes it harder for them to effectively do that. If you lose even one week of potential rent on a $2000/mo house you have lost $500, significantly more than the cost to haul. Add another week and you have lost $1000, the cost of a year of storage most places. Now lets add in rent lost due to the fact that most furnished renters stay only one lease period. If you lose a month to turnover then you have lost $3000 dollars of potential income, assuming a storage cost of $100/mo this is $1800 profit missed out on. Furnishing will generally not make the house rent faster, but it can definitely make it rent slower.
Liability: You need to be careful when leaving things with moving parts behind. The tenants may want the old lawn mower to keep the grass cut right? They very well may, but in addition to the possibility of the old mower breaking there is the possibility of it malfunctioning. A malfunction/possible malfunction that leads to the injury of a tenant can open a door to costs with a very large floor and not much of a ceiling. This is the worst case scenario and not common, but definitely not impossible or unheard of.
Loss: Unfortunately, with furnishing we are unable to document all of your goods left in the property. If something unique or bearing emotional attachment comes up missing it is very possible it is gone and without the compensation to reflect its loss. Nothing being emotional value should be left behind in a furnished property.
If after this you are still comfortable renting your house out partially furnished then we will support you and work with you. But be aware that if the house is taking longer than anticipated to rent, that rental price and season are no longer your only two variables to be looked at.
