Furniture stays or furniture goes when the corporate stay ends

Question

Five month placement in a three bedroom near a medical campus ended in October with nothing booked behind it. The unit sat seven weeks furnished before the next inquiry, and for six of those weeks I could have had an unfurnished twelve month tenant at $1,850. Furnished I was getting $2,950 all in, utilities and internet included, which cost me about $410 a month in season.

So the question I cannot settle is what to do with a full furniture package on the day it goes empty. Storage locally quotes me $185 a month for a three bedroom load, plus two days of labor each direction and the scuffs that come with moving a sofa twice. Leaving it in place costs nothing in cash but it takes the unfurnished tenant pool off the table, because nobody signing a year lease wants my mattresses.

Case for keeping it in place: the whole reason for the premium is being ready on Monday when a company calls, and a stripped unit is a six week rebuild. Case for stripping: I have watched three months of furnished vacancy eat an entire year of premium, and a signed annual lease at a lower number is money I actually collect.

I hold things for a long time and I am comfortable with a slow decision, but seven weeks of an empty furnished house is a slow decision that costs $2,950 a month to make. Curious what people with more furnished doors than me actually do in the gap.

priya_n21 · Answer

Seven weeks empty is the part that would break me. I want the check to show up whether or not a company is relocating anyone that quarter, so I would take the $1,850 and stop thinking about it.

Rena Expert · Answer

The answer turns on one assumption: how many furnished days a year your market actually delivers, and you have one data point so far.

Run both columns with your own numbers. Unfurnished at $1,850 with two weeks of turn vacancy is roughly $21,300 a year gross, and your operating costs are the tenant's problem for utilities. Furnished at $2,950 with your $410 of included utilities nets about $2,540 a month before turn labor and consumables. At ten and a half occupied months that is roughly $26,700, so your furnished premium is on the order of $5,400 a year before furniture replacement. Furniture is a depreciating asset with a real replacement cycle, often five to seven years on soft goods in heavy rotation, so charge something against that premium.

At eight and a half occupied months the two columns converge. That is the number to watch. If your market gives you nine or more furnished months, keeping the package in place is the cheaper way to stay ready, because a six week rebuild costs you the exact bookings that justify the strategy. If you are running under eight and a half, the furniture is carrying the unit rather than the other way around.

Storage at $185 a month plus two moves is the worst of the three options in most cases. You pay cash, you lose the unfurnished pool while you decide, and you damage the goods.

The underlying fix is demand, not the sofa. Nine month furnished occupancy comes from repeat corporate accounts and relocation firms who call you before they call a listing site. Confirm anything about local stay length rules in writing with your city, because minimum stay ordinances vary by city and state.

brandonlee36 · Answer

I keep mine in place and I stopped pretending that was a pricing decision. Every time I stripped a unit I lost the account behind it, because relocation coordinators ask for a start date and a rebuild means I answer with a date six weeks out and they book elsewhere. What changed the math for me was accepting shorter fill stays at a discount in the gap, a visiting nurse contract at $2,300 for eight weeks rather than holding out for $2,950. Two of those a year and the furnished column stops being close.

Furniture stays or furniture goes when the corporate stay ends

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