Furnishing Modern Rental Properties for the Professional Market

If furnishing modern properties for professional tenants, then you need to provide reasonable quality, attractive furniture in order to maximise your income. Properties furnished with tatty, non-matching furniture can often rent for less money than unfurnished properties and can take longer to rent.

Aim for a neutral look that will appeal to the majority of prospective tenants – you might love bright red tables and dark walls but this image is likely to limit your market. A look that is too masculine or too feminine can also limit your tenant options. A natural wood – or wood veneer – is currently popular with most people; birch, beech or oak are more in vogue than pine. Once you’ve chosen your furniture finish, try to continue this throughout the property so that you create a consistent image.

Provide modern, coordinated furniture but – unless you are furnishing for the high-income corporate market, in which case a higher specification is required – you do NOT need to spend a lot of money with local furniture shops. Buying from bulk retailers such as IKEA or some chains can yield significant savings and, providing you coordinate the furniture finish and look and feel, tenants are impressed.

When buying furniture for rental properties, it is generally safer to buy furniture with a warm undertone as this will make even a north-facing room seem inviting. Note that you do not need to buy strong-rust coloured sofas (unless you wish to) to achieve this warm look and feel - cream sofas with warm undertones can be complimented by warm rust/red/brown coloured cushions and a few matching warm-coloured pictures or vases.

Having made sure that your rental property looks good, also consider the comfort of sofas and beds. Would YOU want to relax at night on a rock-hard sofa and then sleep on a bed with a lumpy mattress? Comfortable, happy tenants stay longer and take better care of your rental property.

Also consider the practicalities of how tenants will live in your property once rented. In the bedrooms, do they have enough wardrobe space and drawer space? Beds with inbuilt drawers can provide additional storage in rooms where space is tight; wardrobes with shelves above the hanging rails can again provide additional space.

In the kitchen, ensure there is enough cupboard and/or shelf space for utensils and food and try to make room for either a large fridge-freezer or for a small fridge and a small freezer. Most tenants will want tumble drying facilities as well as a washing machine - either a separate tumble dryer or else a combined washer-dryer.

In the lounge, a bookcase and a sideboard or corner cabinet can provide useful space.

A cupboard in the hall or elsewhere can provide a useful space to hide the necessary vacuum cleaner, brush, mop etc. Don’t forget the cheap-to-buy but easy to overlook coat hooks for the hall, coat hooks for dressing gowns behind the bedroom and/or bathroom doors and towel rails for the bathroom.

Finally, when renting property, ensure that all furniture is sturdy enough to resist normal wear and tear. Avoid flimsy chairs or chests-of-drawers with flimsy drawers or beds that have inadequate base support - you don\'t want the expense of paying a carpenter to fix broken furniture and you don't want to spoil your coordinated range of furniture by introducing extra odds and ends a few years down the line.

Article Source: http://www.realestatepropertyarticles.com.

About the Author:
John owns Ipswich Rental Flats and offers a quick property sales.