For first time real estate investors who purchase residential property, there is always a dilemma over whether to furnish their residential rental investment property and if so what types of basic amenities to provide. This article therefore will cover the two basic types of rental arrangements that will come up if you should want to rent out your residential investment property.

The first type of rental available is an unfurnished investment property. These tenants are the type that will come with their existing furniture and want to move all of it into your property. The problem therefore is what to do with your existing furniture. Sometimes this can result in the owner of the investment property have extra sets of furniture, like I have seen personally myself due to their tenants not liking their choice of furniture. Note that however most landlords do provide the basic amenities like washing machine, dryer and a television. If you are providing those movables, remember to list them clearly with the brand and type in the rental agreement that you sign with your tenant.

The Second type of property is fully furnished property. The thing to note here is that people will always differ from you in terms of furnishing and type of drapes used in the property. Thus one of the best ways to save money in case the existing tenant does not like the furniture that you provide is to get the furniture from IKEA which is relatively cheap to get and also easy to move to your investment property. Not only that, but remember that as long as you spend a certain sum in IKEA, you can get them to do interior designing for your property which is a real time saver, since when you are investing in your property you will be busy looking at the legal work, the mortgage and other things associated with the investment property.

There are also property management companies that have a certain way by which they furnish their apartments and might even furnish the property for you in exchange for a fee. It is submitted that this might be better as it might allow them to market your property with a higher rental. The reason for this is that these property management companies group their rental properties in terms of furnishing and size to determine their rentals so you might want to take a look at their brochures.

In conclusion, at the end of the day, if your investment property is already furnished nicely, you might want to hold out until a tenant that likes your style of furnishing appears so that you can save on the trouble of moving your furniture. Otherwise unless you like furnishing property and are blessed with a good sense of fashion sense, it will be best to leave the furnishing to the professionals.

By Joel Teo 2006 All Rights Reserved