Furnishing 3 unit midterm rental, Mixing house hack and midterm rental

[Alex Perez]

Hi all,

I am closing on my first deal 7/1/24, it's a duplex up-down 2b/1b units with a single garage. I am looking to move into the top unit occupying 1 bed, and looking to furnish the other 3 bedrooms and purpose sharing the one bathroom, with a midterm tenants. I am 5 miles from 2 major hospitals in the St.Paul MN area. My concern is that I invest in furnishing the 3 bedroom and 2 living rooms and that I go to cheap or to expensive. And the furniture needs to be changed out because it isn't comfortable or something like that. Any recommendations on sourcing quality furniture, with that what amenities are good to have with a fenced in back yard?

The numbers also work for the this to be a long term tenant in the down stairs unit to cover part of the mortgage. 

All input is greatly appreciated!!

[Bonnie Low]

Quote from @Matt Vohnoutka:

Hey Alex, sounds like you've got a solid set-up planned for the new duplex!  For furnishing short- or mid-term rentals, finding the right balance between stuff that looks good, but which also offers solid durability and keeps your budget in check can be difficult.

If your budget is your driving factor with your design decisions, I'd start surfing on Google image search or Pinterest - find a picture of a finished room that you like, and then reverse engineer it from products on Amazon and other similar budget-friendly sources. It's amazing how far this process will get you!

For my airbnb unit (the upstairs apartment in an up-down duplex in NE Minneapolis), I found a few really high quality pieces to anchor the rooms (living room couch and lounge chair from Room and Board, and a pull-out sofa sleeper from West Elm).  Anything that is almost guaranteed to be used daily in your rentals (i.e. couches, bed, chairs), I'd try to invest in as much quality as you can for those specific items.

Some store sites will let you filter for "contract grade" or "commercial grade" items - these are the sorts of furnishing that get put into higher-use commercial applications such as hotel lobbies, apartment building amenity spaces, etc.  These are generally going to be more durable than other furnishings you might come across.

Outside of that, nearly everything else I sourced for my Airbnb unit was from Amazon or Target.  This includes the bed frames and mattresses, both of which are the Zinus brand off of Amazon (shout out to Robuilt for the recs on those!) - I've had nothing but positive feedback on the 8" memory foam mattress I put into my Airbnb rental.  HomeGoods also had a ton of great pieces on offer when I was furnishing my Airbnb - lamps, mirrors, side tables, chairs, stools, kitchen and bathroom accessories, throw pillows, blankets, etc.

I am very much NOT a fan of Ikea furniture - most of it is recognizable (not in a good way), looks and feels cheap, and also doesn't hold up well at all over time, but certain pieces may have a time and place in your rentals (lighting, kitchen accessories, silverware/plates/bowls, etc).  If you do go the Ikea route for any furniture, always start on CraigsList or FB Marketplace for used items.

If you're renting the space on platforms that don't rely on reviews like Airbnb/VRBO, you could probably keep the furnishings to a relative minimum and help keep your start-up costs down.  If this is the case, don't be afraid to do the bare minimum to get the space up and running, and then add items as needed over time after you have some rental income to play with.

However, if you are planning on transitioning these to STR's in the future though, I'd definitely recommend getting as close to fully set up as possible before launching. Reviews are everything, and a few bad reviews early on because you didn't have a comfortable bed or were missing kitchen supplies can tank your listing for a long time before you're able to recover. Adding some artwork to help give the place more character - $100-200 on Etsy or Society6 can get you some really unique prints that will help your apartments show well in listing pics and really set them apart from the competition.

If you have the space outdoors, the quickest and easiest amenities to add are a fire pit and BBQ grill (or maybe a patio as well, if you're so inclined).  I'm a big fan of the Yukon Solo Stove with stainless steel lid, which turns into a legit coffee table when not being used for fire - it isn't the cheapest set-up in the world, but the one I put into one of my LTR properties 3 years ago still looks nearly brand new, and was a huge selling point when I was getting it leased out.  A set of bags boards would probably be a nice touch as well.  Anything else beyond that is likely going to take a good chunk of time and investment to get up and running.  If you have a fully fenced in yard, you may also have a great set-up for being a pet-friendly MTR, which could mean extra revenue/pet rent without much effort on your end.

Hope this info helps - keep us updated on how this ends up working out for you in the coming weeks!

 Very solid advice. Don't go cheap overall. Invest in good quality, durable key pieces like beds and couches. Avoid most IKEA products (though I do have a couple of bookshelves that have stood the test of time). And outdoor amenities will really help your listing standout.