Cost of furnishing house

aido79

I will be furnishing a 4 bedroom house in Cavan in the next couple of months. My plan is to rent the house out next year as I live abroad. Just wondering if anyone has any idea of a rough cost and if anyone has any recommendations for furniture stores in the area. Ideally I'd like to get most of it from one or two places.

hfallada

Just use Ikea. Parts can be brought for things in Ikea, which is the reason why we throw stuff out. Eg most of their sofas have covers for sale or you can buy new bed slats. They deliver all over Ireland and their stuff is better than anything you will buy in an Irish furniture store

Mrs OBumble

Consider advertising it unfurnished first, to see what interest there is.

Only buy furniture if you need to - and then ideally only buy what furniture the tenants needs. PITA to buy four beds, for example, and then have tenants say "we want to use one room for an office, please remove the bed".

Tinkerbell4484

There's a furnature shop in kingscourt and in Virginia that sell 2nd hand and landlords furnature you get discounts if you buy a few bits there. Also there's a good shop across from Cavan crystal that sells reasonable priced furnature

johnnyskeleton

Some good stuff on adverts.ie as well, sometimes cheap, sometimes free

johndaman66

hfallada wrote: »

Just use Ikea......their stuff is better than anything you will buy in an Irish furniture store

bit of a bold claim, don't know would I be willing to stand by a statement like that if it were me. However, I would agree with the overall sentiment of your post. For robust yet affordable furniture Ikea is going to be pretty hard to beat....ideal for a property you intend to rent out.

I'm looking at buying myself at the moment. Have put an offer in on a house and at the moment am bargaining with the vendors through the Estate Agent. House is a ex rental house and although it has some furniture that will be included in the sale, whats there is very basic and realistically past its best. All the same it will be good enough to get me on my feet initially along with some small extra bits Im going to have to buy. Will most likely replace a lot of it slowly but surely. Its likely I'll be putting a lot of business Ikea's way especially for bedroom furniture....may get sitting room furniture in somewhere more upmarket possibly (depending on Ikea's lines)....that is of course if I meet some middle ground with the vendor and the sale comes to fruition.

For OP it may be a bit different if they intend to rent out the house and they will need to furnish it fast possibly. If it is a regular run of the mill rental property I would think Ikea all the way.

5uspect

It's almost impossible to rent unfurnished in Ireland which is a shame.

aido79

Thanks for the replies. I will have a look on the ikea website and get family to check out other places mentioned. As I live abroad I am looking for the easiest way to do this so ikea might be best because they deliver. I am hoping to stay in the house myself around xmas so would need at least basic furniture for then. I had thought about trying to rent it out either part furnished or unfurnished as I've seen it works well and would probably get me a more longterm tenant who is more likely to treat the house better as people tend to take care of their own stuff better than someone else's.

quietsailor

5uspect wrote: »

It's almost impossible to rent unfurnished in Ireland which is a shame.

The tenancy laws are written in such a way it's specifically forbidden to let unfurnished. Google "minimum standards" and there should be a government website link explaining it (I'm on a mobile and it's not easy to insert links)

I don't know if you can let it at minimum furnished levels then remove your items after a request from the tenants - you'd have to ask the
PRTB that

Mrs OBumble

quietsailor wrote: »

The tenancy laws are written in such a way it's specifically forbidden to let unfurnished. Google "minimum standards" and there should be a government website link explaining it (I'm on a mobile and it's not easy to insert links)

I don't know if you can let it at minimum furnished levels then remove your items after a request from the tenants - you'd have to ask the
PRTB that

Ahh, no they are not.

Citizen's Information list the minimum standards. In terms of furniture, it boils down to a heater in each room, oven and grill, fridge-freezer, microwave, rubbish bin, and access to a washing machine and dryer.

No mention of beds, chairs, tables, sofas, book cases. That's a long way from fully furnished - and most of the essential stuff won't come from Ikea AFAIK.

mirrorwall14

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Ahh, no they are not.

Citizen's Information list the minimum standards. In terms of furniture, it boils down to a heater in each room, oven and grill, fridge-freezer, microwave, rubbish bin, and access to a washing machine and dryer.

No mention of beds, chairs, tables, sofas, book cases. That's a long way from fully furnished - and most of the essential stuff won't come from Ikea AFAIK.

I'm in semifurnished and absolutely love it. We're saving for a mortgage and have aquired stuff now that we'll need for our own house because we had the space. We own our own double bed, lockers, couch, tv/stand, kitchen table and even cooker (the landlords is here tho). It means when we do buy we can live on what we have and furnish over time

pwurple

Try unfurnished first. There is a demand, and in my experience, you meet a better behaved tenant (because they don't tend to wreck their own stuff!)

tenifan

Are you a first-time landlord?

Unfurnished all the way. You'll save money and usually attract a better calibre of tenant, or at least you won't get as many calls from undesirable tenants.

If furnishing, leave it to the minimum you can get away with. Don't leave appliances like kettles and toasters, bedside lamps, microwaves, etc, that will just get broken or damaged. Buy second-hand if possible, especially things like fridges that people are always trying to get rid of.

If you're thinking you could use the furniture in future (when you arrive home), well you might be surprised at how much wear and tear (read: damage) tenants will cause, especially if they have kids. you'll usually need to budget for a repaint and repairs when they move out.

Also when renting furnished you'll have annoying requests like "I have my own mattress/bed, can you remove yours from the house" or "can you free up a room for my home office/ gym equipment"

Greenmachine

tenifan wrote: »

Are you a first-time landlord?

Unfurnished all the way. You'll save money and usually attract a better calibre of tenant, or at least you won't get as many calls from undesirable tenants.

If furnishing, leave it to the minimum you can get away with. Don't leave appliances like kettles and toasters, bedside lamps, microwaves, etc, that will just get broken or damaged. Buy second-hand if possible, especially things like fridges that people are always trying to get rid of.

If you're thinking you could use the furniture in future (when you arrive home), well you might be surprised at how much wear and tear (read: damage) tenants will cause, especially if they have kids. you'll usually need to budget for a repaint and repairs when they move out.

Also when renting furnished you'll have annoying requests like "I have my own mattress/bed, can you remove yours from the house" or "can you free up a room for my home office/ gym equipment"

Microwave is one thing that must be prot vided. Kettles, toasters and lamps however are not necessary.

aido79

tenifan wrote: »

Are you a first-time landlord?

Unfurnished all the way. You'll save money and usually attract a better calibre of tenant, or at least you won't get as many calls from undesirable tenants.

If furnishing, leave it to the minimum you can get away with. Don't leave appliances like kettles and toasters, bedside lamps, microwaves, etc, that will just get broken or damaged. Buy second-hand if possible, especially things like fridges that people are always trying to get rid of.

If you're thinking you could use the furniture in future (when you arrive home), well you might be surprised at how much wear and tear (read: damage) tenants will cause, especially if they have kids. you'll usually need to budget for a repaint and repairs when they move out.

Also when renting furnished you'll have annoying requests like "I have my own mattress/bed, can you remove yours from the house" or "can you free up a room for my home office/ gym equipment"

Yeah first time landlord. I live in Australia where most rental properties are unfurnished..and by that I mean you have to bring all of your own stuff including fridge,washing machine, all furniture etc. The only thing that has to be supplied is a cooker.

Think I might try and rent it unfurnished or at least wait until I find a decent tenant and ask them what furniture they would like. I would prefer to leave the house empty than rent it to a bad tenant.

Does anyone have a link for somewhere I can find out the minimum furniture and other provisions I would need to supply.

tenifan

Greenmachine wrote: »

Microwave is one thing that must be prot vided. Kettles, toasters and lamps however are not necessary.

In that case, provide the cheapest of the cheap microwave. They're usually the kind of thing that gets rusty very easily or the glass plate gets broken or stops turning around... so no point spending a lot of money in a kitchen that already has a convection oven.

tenifan

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/repairs_maintenance_and_minimum_physical_standards.html

Also, tax for non-resident landlords is sort of a big deal. Make sure you're aware of your obligations.

Hollister11

5uspect wrote: »

It's almost impossible to rent unfurnished in Ireland which is a shame.

Not really. Last September my mam and dad advertised an unfurnished house which was advertise for less a week.

Greenmachine

tenifan wrote: »

In that case, provide the cheapest of the cheap microwave. They're usually the kind of thing that gets rusty very easily or the glass plate gets broken or stops turning around... so no point spending a lot of money in a kitchen that already has a convection oven.

I have never seen a rusty microwave, imagine if they are cheap enough they might rust. I can also understand a landlords position in these thing too. I believe the op will be able to get the necessary information from the tenancy board.

5uspect

Hollister11 wrote: »

Not really. Last September my mam and dad advertised an unfurnished house which was advertise for less a week.

I think you misunderstand me. I'm a tenant and I found it very hard to find an unfurnished place to rent in Dublin as I had a lot of my own furniture from renting in the UK.

Mrs OBumble

tenifan wrote: »

In that case, provide the cheapest of the cheap microwave. They're usually the kind of thing that gets rusty very easily or the glass plate gets broken or stops turning around... so no point spending a lot of money in a kitchen that already has a convection oven.

I wouldn't agree with that advice.

If you want a quality tenant, then get reasonable quality for the stuff you're legally required to provide. Not top of the line. But not absolute crap either.

In general, I find that if you treat people badly, they they're like to reciprocate. Of course there are exceptions, but if you set the tone cheap, you will get cheap behaviour.

sillysocks

One thing about IKEA is you can't put in the order online. Someone has to physically go to the shop to order and then they will deliver. They do a picking service which means you just have to hand it the list and they will pick up all the bits and bring them to the delivery area but someone still has to go in to hand in the list and pay. And you can't pre arrange delivery, like you couldn't book it for a month later, you just get the next delivery day.

All from experience handy once you can get someone to hand in the list for you tho!

aido79

tenifan wrote: »

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/repairs_maintenance_and_minimum_physical_standards.html

Also, tax for non-resident landlords is sort of a big deal. Make sure you're aware of your obligations.

I am aware of my tax obligations both in Ireland and Australia.

aido79

sillysocks wrote: »

One thing about IKEA is you can't put in the order online. Someone has to physically go to the shop to order and then they will deliver. They do a picking service which means you just have to hand it the list and they will pick up all the bits and bring them to the delivery area but someone still has to go in to hand in the list and pay. And you can't pre arrange delivery, like you couldn't book it for a month later, you just get the next delivery day.

All from experience handy once you can get someone to hand in the list for you tho!

Thanks. That is good to know and will probably suit because I am not sure when the house will be ready to be furnished and when it does it may need to be done quickly.

sillysocks

The ikea delivery charge is based on how much you're ordering. From memory I think if it's over 1k worth then delivery was 95 eur maybe.
They seem to have very regular deliveries. I live in the south of the country and there were fourdelivery days during the week so very prompt. One of my items delivered was wrong, think that was a Thursday, and they came back on the Sunday to take away the wrong item and replace it with the right one.

aido79

sillysocks wrote: »

The ikea delivery charge is based on how much you're ordering. From memory I think if it's over 1k worth then delivery was 95 eur maybe.
They seem to have very regular deliveries. I live in the south of the country and there were fourdelivery days during the week so very prompt. One of my items delivered was wrong, think that was a Thursday, and they came back on the Sunday to take away the wrong item and replace it with the right one.

Thanks for that. IKEA definitely seems like my best bet.

red_owl99

aido79 wrote: »

Yeah first time landlord. I live in Australia where most rental properties are unfurnished..

Hi,
I'm in the same scenario now except renting a place in Dublin. Did you rent furnished/unfurnished? Where did you get your furniture ? How much did you spend?

Tks!