Buying Tips: Furnishings

About 70 percent of properties in Breckenridge and Summit County are second homes. When selling a second home, the owner (who may live in New York) will typically not want to deal with selling furniture separately from the home itself. Therefore, the purchase price will often include “Furniture and Furnishings”. There are a few different viewpoints our team of brokers has compiled for consideration on the subject of homes sales inclusive of furnishings.

Seller

If you are the seller of a property and are including “Furniture and Furnishings” in the purchase price, it cannot be emphasized enough that you need to be precise in establishing what is staying in the home and what you are keeping after the sale. It may appear obvious to you that your “personal items” will not be included, but how is a buyer to know that the expensive Breckenridge painting your parents gave you for your birthday (that the buyers have just fallen in love with) is a “personal item”. If there are items that you do not want a buyer to “assume” are part of the purchase price, then it would be best to remove them prior to allowing showings to occur. However, properties definitely show their best when they are fully furnished and decorated. Therefore, if you do decide to leave all items on display, then it is important to make sure that there is an “Exclusions List” on display in the property identifying items not included in the purchase price. This will help to avoid any confusion over what furnishings are part of the deal.

Buyer

Generally buyers experience one of two emotions in regard to “Furniture and Furnishings”. They are either delighted to learn that the furniture is included in the purchase price or the question arises, “Can we buy the house without the 20 year old furniture?” Consult with your Breckenridge Associates Real Estate broker about the best way to handle this situation where you’re not in love with the furnishings and may not want them to be part of the deal. A general rule of thumb would be to assume that unless the furniture is brand new or a particularly expensive brand of furniture then excluding furniture in your offer may not make too big a difference to what the seller would consider to be an “acceptable offer”. Furniture is left more as a convenience than a significant added value in most cases. On another note, if you are considering entering your property in the rental pool of properties in the area, often times having the property already furnished means it’s ready to rent sooner.

Mortgage Company or Bank

It is also important to note that if you are the buyer and are financing the purchase, your lender will want to see that the furniture is being transferred by a separate bill of sale (and is not part of the purchase price). Consult with your Breckenridge Associates Real Estate broker about the correct way to handle this in drafting your offer.