Value of staging for renting vacant new units

[TangoWhiskey]

My partner and I are deciding whether to purchase enough decent furniture to stage the rental units we have in an 18 unit deal that we are renovating right now. These units are contained in a triplex/6 townhouses/6 plex/duplex/single family home that are each being renovated over the next 5 months with units fed onto the rental market at the rate of about 1 every two weeks. All units are co-located on 4 neighbouring parcels on the ocean with a view of downtown Halifax. The type of tenant we're trying to appeal to is a 50K+ income earner; hardwood floors; crown molding; stainless steel appliances; A - class tenant profile.



If we invest 1000 $ in good furniture will that increase rent at all? The idea would be to move the same set from unit to unit every two weeks.



Will this increase rent or would it mostly be effective in increasing the speed of renting the units?



TB, others, anybody have any experience with staging units for rentals?



Thanks in advance

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Just as an observation if staging a unit added 25 $/month to rent, then X18 = 450 $/month more NOI or 5400/yr.



5400/.065 cap rate = 83 000 $!!!!



For 1000 $ this almost seems a no-brainer even if staging only had a fraction of the impact outlined above.

 

[invst4profit]

The results will depend on whether rents are driven by the market or the landlord. Your target market will not likely be of lower intellect and therefor not as likely to fall for the glitz of the marketing but who knows.



To be honest you can not buy "good" furniture to stage a unit for only $1000. Maybe a couch or a table but that is about all.

Why not try it out by first renting the furniture for staging and see how smart the market really is.

 

[markbrad]

Not sure what you have for small/private furniture stores there, but perhaps approach one of them to supply the furniture in exchange for the advertising/show suite. Or pay them for it. You may even try talking to the manager of the local Brick or Sears. All have expressed interest to us for show home purposes. Worth a try



Mark

 

[JimWhitelaw]

I don't think staging with furniture is worth it for rentals and $1000 won't get "good" furniture anyway. We do a "partial staging" for vacant rentals. We have a couple big plastic storage bins of knick-knacks, kitchen items, towels, bathmats, candles, silk plants, plus a couple large fake tree plants, floor lamps, area rug, etc. We bring it in and set it up in about 10 min and don't have to hassle with renting furniture or storing it. It looks much better than a bare suite and is way less work than a full staging. I also keep some pre-printed flyers and application forms and pens in the bins so it's all ready to go. Arrive a few mins early for the first showing and leave it in place till it's rented. Pack it all up in 10 min again. Total cost was about $200. Here's an idea of what one of our staged kitchens looks like: