Furnished vs. unfurnished: What to know when buying, selling homes with furniture
Interior designer Noelle Paquette stands in the master bathroom of a home in Dix Hills she designed. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Over decades working in the furniture business, Claudette Romano has seen tastes change. Despite a penchant for the scrolls and carvings of Victorian design, she caters to the clientele in furnishing the Hamptons property she rents out.
"They wanted a more easy living," said Romano, now in her late 80s. "They don't want to bother with carvings and all kinds of overlays."
A fully equipped rental, complete with indoor and outdoor furniture, is appealing in the Hamptons market, said Romano. An unfurnished rental in the area is unheard of, she said.
But the appeal of a furnished home for sale is a more nuanced phenomenon.
"When you sell a house furnished, it paints a picture for the [buyer]," said interior designer Noelle Paquette, owner of Noelle Paquette Interiors. "But the issue is, that might not be the picture that they want painted."
In a market with chronically low inventory, not many listings will sit indefinitely. But furniture can speed or slow the process, depending on the circumstances.
Furnished homes work sometimes — not always
Interior designer Noelle Paquette said the appeal of a furnished home can be nuanced. Credit: Rick Kopstein
When you sell a house furnished, it paints a picture for the [buyer]. But the issue is, that might not be the picture that they want painted.
— Noelle Paquette, interior designer
Selling a furnished house can be challenging, real estate experts said. In many cases, theorized Daniel Gale agent Heidi Karagianis, a home on the market with its existing furniture is convenient for the seller, but not for prospective buyers.
"I've never met a buyer who's said, 'Hey I love your 30-year-old furniture; please let me keep all of it in my brand-new house — that I've overpaid for in a bidding war,' " she said.
Karagianis recalled a recent visit to a $5.7 million home that the owners were trying to sell furnished. The furniture was expensive, she said, but not to her buyer's taste. For various reasons, her clients purchased a different home.
Most people do not want to buy something that's other people's furniture. In fact, it's a turnoff.
— Heidi Karagianis, Daniel Gale real estate agent
Offering a home with the option of including furnishings, to give the buyer a choice without a seller's attachment to either outcome, is a better potential option, Paquette said. To sell only to a buyer who will take the house furnished can mean winding up in a corner, she explained.
"You could have a person that walks in and says, 'Oh my God, the green swivel chairs of my dream, I've been looking for this,' " she said. "But, nine out of 10 people are going to say, 'I don't want a green swivel chair.' "
The judgment of a home's furnishings is subjective; but some stylistic choices are more likely to work in the seller's favor.
"If you had an interior designer come in and your house looks like it's out of a magazine, selling it furnished can help," Paquette said. "But, I think for the normal, average house, selling it furnished isn't always the best strategy."
An agent for eXp Realty, Jeffrey Jimenez is involved in his fourth sale that includes furniture. The Huntington house served as a vacation home for the seller, though the township is not widely perceived as a vacation community.
Agent Jeffrey Jimenez is representing a Huntington house that is being sold furnished.
If it's an unordinary house with unordinary furniture, then it makes it a little bit more challenging but it's still accomplishable.
— Jeffrey Jimenez, eXp Realty real estate agent
Either way, a sale runs smoothest when both parties are willing to negotiate.
"What if I'm a seller that's upsizing, and I have my own furniture, and I love my furniture, and I don't want that bed, and I don't want that dresser," Jimenez said. "At that point, that's when you have to get crafty and you have to go to your seller and say, 'Look, this person loves the house but they just don't want the furniture with it.' "
And the deal is not necessarily all or nothing. In negotiating, Jimenez said, a buyer might be interested in certain pieces of furniture and not others.
"Everything you sell has a particular buyer for it," Jimenez said. "You just have to match not only the house, but now the furniture that accompanies the house, to that buyer."
The challenge, Jimenez said, highlights the importance of hiring an agent who can present the benefits of furnished spaces to a prospective buyer. A home for sale with couches and all might work for someone moving out of an apartment, he said.
If a prospective buyer will take certain pieces, Jimenez said, an agent might ask the seller about the value of the furniture and which terms would be acceptable to both parties. In some cases, including estate sales, a buyer might even leverage the willingness to take the furniture and use or dispose of it.
"It's not if it's going to sell, it's when it's going to sell, and what person is going to be the one that buys." Jimenez said.
Karagianis said the best opportunity to sell the home's furniture is to sell it to the homebuyer. The inclusion or sale of modern, luxury pieces in alignment with today's taste will appeal to some buyers, she said. And sometimes, a buyer will even ask for a particular piece.
"On the flip side, sometimes it's a chandelier that blows up a deal," Karagianis said. "They say, 'Hey, I want to take the chandelier,' and then the buyer says, 'I have to have the chandelier.' "
Vacation homes are usually best options
Claudette Romano caters the furnishings in the home she rents out to Hamptons clientele. Credit: John Roca
A good rental, they just walk right in as if it's theirs.
— Claudette Romano
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Paquette said, many were looking for furnished homes to help expedite the moving process. Still, she said, furnished homes have their place in the market. In vacation-friendly areas like the Hamptons, experts suggested, a furnished home might be an easier sell.
"I think there's a lot of value for selling something furnished or renting something furnished in certain situations, like if it's a vacation home," Paquette said. "Not only is the thought of buying a second home daunting, but it's also filling it and buying all the furniture for it."
When Romano was looking to sell her home, a prospective buyer was interested in the furniture — but they had plans to rent it out after the purchase.
"These people come out, and they're busy," Romano said of seasonal renters. "And they live very differently in their apartments than they do in their houses."
An ideal rental property in the Hamptons is one the tenants can use right away, Romano said. Sometimes, there are even pots and pans.
"Even the barbecue has the gas in it when they come," Romano said. "A good rental, they just walk right in as if it's theirs."
"It depends on the buyer," said Hajrije Velovic, an IPE Realty LLC agent currently representing the seller of a fully furnished, Victorian-style home in Southampton. "Some people like it because they're seasonal . . . and they like it furnished; some people say, you know what, I don't want the furniture."
What to know if you want to sell, buy furnished
As an agent, Karagianis often finds herself gently reminding clients that the houses they are selling will no longer belong to them.
"I always try to stage people's houses because when people leave their houses exactly how it is, they can't not see themselves in it," Karagianis said. "As soon as I change their wall color, or take their artwork off the wall, or switch some of their things around, they start not seeing their house as their house anymore; and then things become much easier."
Furniture is sometimes a main component of a seller's emotional connection to the home, Karagianis said.
"My philosophy is, you're calling me because you're not going to be in this house anymore," Karagianis said. "Whatever the reason is, happy or sad, you need to dispose of this house. So, my job is to help you emotionally and physically get yourself out of the house."
Furniture a professional stager might bring in typically has wide appeal, in contrast to the furnishings a homeowner has chosen and used for themselves.
"As homeowners, your house is so personal to you, and you love it," Paquette said. "But you have to think, 'what's going to appeal to a broader audience?' "
For buyer and seller, the furnished-versus-unfurnished debate can also be used as a negotiating tool.
"At the end of the day, a buyer can decide, 'No, I don't want this and you need to remove it,' and the seller can decide whether they want to do that or not," Paquette said.
Negotiating can mean high-end furniture at discounts
As founder of Grey Gate Home, a high-end consignment shop and antiques business, Angela Cardillo has become a resource for homebuyers and sellers. Calls come in from buyers who have purchased furnished homes but want only some of the pieces, as well as from sellers looking to offload items they will no longer need.
Earlier this year, Cardillo was working with a home seller looking to sell a dining room set she said was worth $25,000 before leaving the property in early May. The set was too large to fit into her Locust Valley store, so Cardillo was consigning it on site. When the furniture sold, she said, she would move it for her clients.
"These two pieces alone are over $2,000 to $3,000 to move," Cardillo said. "Because of the weight, the price, the insurance."
In Cardillo's view, there is incentive for both a buyer and a seller to negotiate including the furniture in the purchase. A seller can avoid additional moving costs; but there is also an upside for a buyer willing to handle furniture a seller does not plan to keep.
In the high-end market, she said, a buyer might even offer to pay more to acquire unwanted furniture of high value. This can mean getting expensive furniture at a significant discount.
"You can probably get close to 50% off that $20,000 set," Cardillo said. "If you're smart about it, you can get a really good deal."
A homebuyer who agrees to take the furniture but does not want to keep any or all of it can consign or donate the pieces.
Cardillo is not an appraiser, but can often offer an estimated value for a piece a client no longer wants. If the item can fit into her store, it is picked up, valued and put out for retail. Otherwise, when possible, she might consign the item on site. The business will also clear a home and have furniture broken down when necessary.
"Most of the times, the low-end furniture gets donated to our sources and then they get distributed amongst people who can't afford furniture," said Cardillo, who noted that one company objective is to save furniture.
"The whole business is we're trying to prevent dumping."
Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.
