apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Probably a great option for the busy-design-challenged folks or newly divorced bachelor...

Well, if the collective AT community were to design a condo I might be interested 'cause ya know, y'all got some tasty style...

Otherwise I would not be interested, particularly as one can imagine the markup on the furnishings...

Me -- never! But I can imagine the appeal for a lot of people who find the task of decorating completely daunting.

Also, how much of this is driven by part-time residents in Manhattan (or people buying to rent out their flats . . .) When your NYC place is merely a pied-a-terre, do you really have the time to customize and furnish? And for that matter, do you really care if it's personalized or not?

Why not? It's (probably) cheaper than hiring an interior decorator, and if you like what you see, it's a lot less risky.

And much, much, much less time consuming.

Sometimes it makes sense for a piece or two to stay with the property--a storage unit that fits perfectly in an alcove, or a kitchen table that really complements the style of the kitchen. But a whole apartment, no.

My mom just sold her fully-furnished waterfront condo on Florida's Gulf Coast. It's very common there to sell all the furnishings with the place because most condos are part-time homes and/or vacation rentals. Like most first-floor condo owners on the beach, my mom wasn't too attached to all of the stuff that replaced that which was waterlogged in the couple of hurricanes that washed through in the past few years. In a city, it seems a little odd, but if it's a second home, and you really aren't attached to the furnishings, why not? Interesting post, Aaron. Has Maxwell weighed in? He has changed my thinking about possessions, so I could definitely see selling everything with a place.

I like some of the furnished places in the the pics above -- I would consider it.

Also, with the crafty things that are always happening with mortgages, there would probably be a way to roll the cost of the furnishings into the mortgage, which would be very, very, very appealing to many.

The odd thing is that none of these furnishing are hard to find.

That's why the gambit works. If you like stuff that's readily findable, combined in ways that are conventional enough for someone to think of them for you, there's no reason to go hunt your furniture yourself.

These apartments are more high-style than the furnished rentals among our neighbors, but the intent is the same: convenience for people with conventional tastes and needs. (Those top two photos could be Smallest, Coolest entries if the rooms didn't look too big. Eames... Noguchi... cow hide... flat-screen TV...)

Being relentlessly quirky, I'd never go for it, though there are moments when it crosses my mind that not being relentlessly quirky would be so much less work...

I own a slope-side condo at a major ski resort and it is standard up there to buy/sell your homes furnished. I do not rent or loan my place out (no worries about strangers destroying my stuff) and didn't want to have to buy it with someone else's taste pre-installed. It was tough to get the furniture (all new, and from major retailers) delivered because this resort is at a very high altitude and about six hours from any town with a population greater than 4,000, but in the end it was totally worth it. For a lot of people buying/selling furnished is a great way to go, but not for me.

Given that a good portion of the hot condo market in all major markets was driven by speculators (often individuals buying one or two units), I'm not surprised. Many of these units were never bought to be lived in - they were bought as investments to be flipped in a year or two and possibly rented in the interim. On top of that layer, you've got the layer of well off folks buying these condos as second homes. Again, why bother to decorate what is an occassional place in the city.

In many markets, more than half of the condo units in many of these new buildings are being rented, not owner-occupied. (Regardless of what people lied about on their purchase mortgage applications.)

I wonder how much the sofa you only kinda like and the oversized vases with sticks in them thrown in to make the condo look more "lived in" will end up costing you when amortized over 25 years?

I am in the process of furnishing a second-home condo and it is taking forever, so I completely see the appeal of this. However, I would only pay cash for the furnishings, as it makes absolutely no sense to pay interest on furnishings that you know will have nearly zero resale value.

I could see the appeal of buy one, but what surprises me is that people want to sell furnished condos in Manhattan in the first place. It would seem that doing so would narrow the amount of prospective buyers considerably.

Wouldn't it?

This is sooooooooooo my dream job.

k2:

Perhaps less than the interest they would typically rack up on credit cards... and perhaps less than what the interior designer would charge... and mark it all up.

wende--

Don't you sell fully-furnished dollhouses?!? :)

And I can guarantee, if AT design and furnished one, the furniture wouldn't be pushed up against the walls like they all seem to be here.

My parents bought their Florida condo fully furnished about 15 years ago during a lull in the condo market. It was to be a seasonal rental and it helped a lot to have it furnished already, though not to anyone's exact liking. We pitched what we hated, added a few new things and slowly replaced everything else in about 8 years. My parents hated the danish modern master bedroom set and I eagerly took it off their hands. If the mark up wasn't outrageous, I would do the same for a secondary residence. Getting the kitchen already stocked with pots, pans and other stuff is wonderful, and the previous owners would have just chucked it all.