I have 3 days to Furnish a STR. What would you do?

[Curtis H.]

Hey all, 

So I am closing on a home today in Atlanta that I plan to stay in for a few weeks out of the year on and off, and rent it out to business travelers via short term leases, Airbnb, etc when I'm home in CA. 

Next weekend I will be out there and have all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to furnish an empty house. Obviously I'm goign to need help. I'm not an interior designer, nor am I a good assembly guy. It could take me all day to put a bed together. I'm terrible. 

My priority is securing the home, putting up security cameras, Ring Doorbell, Smartlock, getting utilities switched to my name, internet, and the major furniture items (Bed, couch, dressers, etc.)

How would you guys tackle this? Have Ikea furnish the whole damn place and deliver and install? Are there better stores than Ikea that will do this for a SLIGHTLY higher price? I won't skimp on certain comfort items like the beds, coffee maker, etc. Anyone use TaskRabbit before? I like the concept of an Uber for laborers based on a review system. Just don't know anybody who has used them. 

Or should I focus on hooking up with a Superhost and just letting them run with it (costing me a fortune but no headaches). I absolutely don't know what I am doing on STR, and the price was right for me on this property to try it out for a year.

Thanks, 

Curtis

[Mitch Coluzzi]

For the furniture component/furnishings, you may want to reach out to a local staging company.  Spoiler!  Many staging companies have partnership agreements with their product lines and will rotate their current inventories.  They will likely be happy to out-right sell you the furniture they are "retiring".  Large marketing firms also do this with all of their seasonal props (which can include bedroom sets).  Added bonus, staging companies likely have multiple sets of inventory with most of the items you need on hand.  It will cost you, but they also have the man-power to get it delivered, set up, and styled well.  There will be missing components, but it will optimize your time.

For security, I generally just default to ADT.  It is not the most cost effective, but they have remote wireless signals (no need for internet connection) with battery backups and remote viewing capabilities.  If you have a consistent internet connection, less of an issue but we deal with a lot of short-term situations which our local rep was able to help us deal with.  Previously, we went the DIY radio dialer security systems a few times and it just resulted in a handful of headaches.  Resolved that paying for a service is worth the headaches saved.

For lock-boxes, check out Vault Lock's e-lock solutions.  They offer one time pass codes, remote access, tracking, the whole nine yards.  There are all sorts of deadbolt solutions, but the reoccurring flaw with them is the access code has to be changed.  Can be a bear when managing remotely, the vault lock seems to be a solution to that!  DISCLAIMER: We just ordered a handful of these for our properties today (will update when we have some real-world experience to share).