Renting Furnished?

I love decorating and I love land. I found a pretty little mainland sim with some cheap land available and my partner and I bought it. We're in the process of decorating and trying to get renters in, with the goal of creating cozy showplaces that people can just move in to; but um...now I'm starting to panic.

We have to rent at a pretty high rate in order to cover our costs. So now I'm asking (too late perhaps) about the market for furnished residences. And what is the best way to get the word out about them?

I feel your panic. I was in the same place just a short time ago. Patience is the key. You are not going to turn a profit overnight, especially in a market where there is a glut of cheap land available. Seasonality is also a factor. It's slow all over right now.

In my opinion, part of why people look for places to live is to rez their own furniture. Placing empty houses is all you need to do. Some folks want to put in their own houses as well, so you might want to be flexible with that.

As far as getting the word out, I asked the same question two weeks ago when I bought my sim and here are the responses I got:

I rent a place and would personally not want it furnished. We all have different taste in furniture and such forth and want to put out some favourite pieces, plus plants and photographs on the wall. I guess it depends on how much per week and how many prims for that?

Hi Musetta and congrats on your purchase.. hope it does well by you.

first off, it can take several weeks to get your first renters in - so don't panic just yet! Once you do, word of mouth can draw others in on a regular basis. Use any and all channels to get your details out, and be prepared to spend a few thousand Lindens on your classifieds... try and get them on the first page if you can afford to. Use the Rental forum here and places like SL Exchange as well.

As far as furnished vs unfurnished... hmm. I've about 40 odd houses I rent out currently and only in one of them did the renters say they wanted a furnished place. Most people (in my limited experience) like to go furniture shopping - or even making - themselves. If you ARE going to furnish - well, my motto is always get the best you can possibly afford. It always pays for itself in the long run.

Best of luck with your venture

Inc

I'd agree with the "unfurnished" crowd...but only to the extent of actual furniture.

My preference was for raw land, and to build everything from the ground up. It's proved to be great fun...but also a much bigger project than I'd initially thought.

My friend bought land with a house and landscaping already in place. It's an absolutely gorgeous Japanese motif. with a big, open 2 story main house and four little outbuildings. It has plantings, and paths, and butterflies.

If I were doing it again, I just might go that route. As long as your builds aren't "cookie cutter" prefabs that all look alike, and look like every other place in SL, you should be able to find tenants, and to charge a higher rent than for bare land. Be sure to leave your tenants enough prims for their furniture and toys...

That's one thing I just refuse to do... I pay close to the the minimum for my classified ads. LL is getting enough money from me. Just can't see putting real money into their unreliable classified system.

I've noticed that the more you pay, the more traffic you get. Inworld search is not irrelevant. I can tell the difference between looks when I was being cheap versus spending more.

When it comes to other classified categories, there is not much use in paying much more than 50L. This one, not so much - because it's a generally homogeneous product, and is easy to browse from top to bottom, versus shopping for shoes, amid countless other ads for gadgets, clothes, hair, etc.

Musetta,

I have 20 apartments in my building, and I furnished one as a model. That way people could get a better feel for how big it really is with furniture in it, and it satisfied my creative decorator urge. I have a note that says that I'll remove the furniture if anyone wants that unit.

I would also chime in that most renters want to be able to rezz their own furniture. but your decorating in a temporary model will inspire them!

I know this is slightly off the OP topic a bit Ray, but I have found it works. As has my partner for her antiques business. I started at the basic minimum of 50L a week, and had absolutely NO interest. Upped to enough to get halfway up the first page and hey presto! Full (or near enough) in next to no time. Not saying that's the answer to all the OP's needs of course

Inc

The rental properties that I have helped manage, most people were not interested in the place coming fully furnished. Most didn't even want the house or the landscaping - they just wanted the lot to build their own dreams on.

I'll agree though that having a single furnished unit as a demo can help whet their appetite, and make more sales.

I just rented somewhere and I was definitely swayed by no furniture in the place. I saw a few places that had furniture, but I wanted to buy my own. Half the fun of getting the apartment was choosing the furniture to go in it, and now I've done it I want to start all over again

When I was looking, I did start at the top of the first page and work down the list, if that helps with your advertising dilemma.

Thanks so much for your input, everyone. I'll try to stop panicking...lol.



It's definitely a niche market, I know. I'm aiming to attract those people who like really nice places but aren't yet (or don't care to be) familiar with decorating or building on a prim budget. I've seen so many people...for instance, the previous tenant of the townhouse I live in, whose places are empty or half-empty because they ran out of prims.

The cottage I'm renting is done up with a kind of eclectic 'second home' feel. I've completely finished the downstairs and am waiting on a texture change from the vendor of the bed I want upstairs. I'm just starting on the huge skybox, which will have a kind of minimalist neo-classical feel.

Most of the stuff is transfer too, so if they fall in love with certain pieces there's the possibility of taking it with them when they move. I give the option of removing the furniture as well...lol...just in case.



Ack! I was afraid you'd say that. I'll definitely look at forking over more than a hundred bucks on the classified.

I know paying more makes for a more effective ad. I just don't want to pay more. At least not until I absolutely have to.

One thing I did was buy a cheap 512 plot on a random sim and relisted it for the same price with a few lines about Liome in the description. I also placed a notecard giver on the plot should people tp there. A few people might hear about my sim this way and once the 512 sells, it won't have cost me anything.

I'll take the opposite tack here - I much prefer a furnished to an unfurnished place when it comes to renting. Especially if the landlord has a good fashion sense, I would prefer to let them do the work of decorating. As long as I have a small prim allowance so I can hang pictures and put out plants I'm good.