Airbnb, long term lease and how to approach buying furnitures

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I am in a confusing situation now and need some help from experienced individuals. I bought my first investment property which is located near two universities. My primary targets are university students with long term lease, however, with COVID and less demand in student housing, I wanted to try out Airbnb which is also growing in the area. Basically, to gauge the market a bit more, I want to try out both Airbnb and long term lease. I am at the very initial stage of buying furniture for the rooms now. But what’s bothering me is that for Airbnb I have to go all-in and buy bed frames, mattress, desk, carpet and make it look shiny. But next year, when school reopens, I wanna shift to student housing. But all these furnitures will be useless then. Especially if the students want the rooms emptied out. I will have to dump all in the basement for later use. I am not sure whether students prefer pre-decorated property (i.e. existing bed frames, mattresses, desk, lamp, carpet, so on) or would rather bring their own. If I am going for mattresses that last for 5 to 6 years at the least, with yearly lease I will have to use those same mattresses for 3 or 4 students! Will they feel okay with that? I wanna invest on good mattress protectors and change that per tenant, but I can definitely see tenants buying their own mattresses and even frames. My property has laminate flooring and I would rather have the heavy furniture in place than having each tenant drag those around and scratch or break the surface. I can limit Airbnb in a certain parts of the property to avoid wasting money buying furniture. But I just don’t know the rules and regulations and market demand on pre-decorated property for tenants and given that how to approach buying furniture for now.

Thanks in advance for your input on this.

[Patricia Taveras]

@Mahmuda Liza

Hi Mahmuda. My husband and I have furnished 3 Airbnb's now. We bought almost everything from Facebook marketplace and yard sales, including the bed frames and mattresses. Lay on the mattresses to check for comfort. Inspect seams for staining to avoid bed bugs. Cover in mattress encasements to prevent bed bugs in the future. The only thing we make a point to buy new are couches. If you pick pieces you really like you will be surprised how the rooms come together to look great, especially if you add art, which you can also buy thrift. The only bad thing is that does require a lot of cash. We then use credit cards and Amazon to buy all new linens and towels and kitchen items we haven't been able to find second hand. Once you go STR you may not want to go back. We have a friend doing very well on airbnb in a university market here in NC. Good luck!