Unfurnished vs. Furnished: the Real Math

Furnished winter rentals in Arizona command a premium, and reasonably so — the owner has capital in the furniture and a vacancy risk to cover. The question worth asking is whether that premium is larger than the cost of furnishing an unfurnished place yourself.

Often it is. Sometimes it is not. The variable that decides it is not the one most people look at.

Setting up the comparison

Compare like with like. A furnished seasonal rental and an unfurnished annual lease are different products with different lease lengths, so the honest comparison is total cost across your actual stay:

• Furnished: monthly rent, usually at a seasonal rate that peaks in winter, for exactly the months you are here.
• Unfurnished: monthly rent at the standard market rate, plus furniture, plus the delivery fee — but frequently on a longer lease that you may be paying for while you are not in it.

Furniture is the smaller number in that comparison, which surprises people. A one-bedroom Corporate package with housewares runs $360 a month off-peak and $540 at peak rates. That is generally well below the gap between a furnished and unfurnished rent on the same unit. Rates quoted here are current at the time of writing — see the pricing page for today's grid.

The catch, and the way around it

The catch is that winter is our peak season too. Peak rates apply to any rental touching January 1 through March 31, so a January-to-March furniture rental is priced at the top of the range at precisely the moment a furnished rental is also priced at the top of its range. Renting unfurnished does not let you escape seasonality; everyone in Arizona is subject to the same three months.

The way around it is a clause in our pricing that rewards longer terms: peak rates do not apply when the lease term is six months or longer.

So consider two winter visitors in identical one-bedroom apartments:

• January through March. Three months, peak rates throughout.
• October through March. Six months, off-peak rates throughout — including January, February and March.

The second visitor has the furniture for twice as long at a lower monthly rate. Depending on the package, the six-month rental can land close to the three-month one in total. If your place is available in the autumn — and many seasonal leases are, because the owner cannot fill October and November anyway — running the furniture long is the single biggest lever you have.

When furnished still wins

We would rather you get this right than rent from us unnecessarily. Furnished is the better answer when:

• Your stay is genuinely short — six or eight weeks.
• You want no logistics at all and will pay for that.
• You are trying Arizona for the first time and do not yet know which city you want.
• The unfurnished option requires a twelve-month lease you would be paying through the summer.

Unfurnished plus rented furniture tends to win when you are staying three months or more, when you know where you want to be, and especially when you can stretch the term past six months.

Running your own numbers

Take the furnished rent you have been quoted, subtract the unfurnished rent on a comparable unit, and multiply by your months. That is your furnishing budget. Then compare it against the package rates for your bedroom count, at the season your term qualifies for.

If the answer is close, call us before you sign anything — 480.755.4944, Monday through Friday, 9 to 4. The lease term you choose may matter more than the package you choose.