buying apartment with furniture

IKKI

Hi,

I am currently planning to purchase an apartment and bidding on it. The seller may be willing to include furniture (which both my wife and I like) if we are willing to pay 12k for it. It is a 3 bedroom apartment. To be honest, the thoughts of all the stress buying the furniture makes this offer quite appealing. Of course, I wouldn't like to be fooled. Has anyone done something like this before?

nibtrix

If I was going to pay 12k for someone else's furniture I'd want to see the original receipts to see how much it was worth and how old it was. Unlikely to happen.

Unless the furniture is top quality it sounds like quite a lot. Personally, I found choosing and buying my own furniture one of the best bits, after years of living in furnished apartments with someone else's choice.

Of course, putting together all that flatpacked stuff for the bedrooms and office added some stress :pac:

awec

12k is a lot for second hand furniture for an apartment.

Atlantic Dawn

Did you ask to buy or did they offer the furniture?

punisher5112

I'd go in not interested in it to be honest, get your own or at least make it look that's what you want, they may well drop that figure.

KaneToad

punisher5112 wrote: »

I'd go in not interested in it to be honest, get your own or at least make it look that's what you want, they may well drop that figure.

I agree. They want you to buy the furniture. They wouldn't offer it otherwise. You should easily be able to negotiate down from 12K.

I'd be acting a little bit interested, hinting that the furniture might be a good stop gap until you get the opportunity to furnish it how you want. It lets them know you can take it or leave it...

Tork

I think they're taking you for a ride TBH. Not only are they being saved the hassle of having to remove the furniture from an apartment but they're making a bit of a profit too. As anybody who has ever bought their own place will tell you, furnishing it isn't cheap. Still, 12K will go a long way towards new furniture and redecorating unless you've got expensive tastes. I think you and your wife could do worse than to take a look at the prices for second hand furniture on DoneDeal and to take a walk around some of the furniture shops you think you'd be buying from. Buying furniture and having it delivered isn't that much of a hassle. Getting rid of it from your home is more of a nuisance.

awec

Have you a list of what's included OP? I assume that none of it is IKEA stuff.

johnnyskeleton

Was it previously rented out or are the sellers emigrating? If so, they might be looking for an excuse to leave it behind them

Tork

Also, OP, you might find yourselves wanting to put your own stamp on the place once you've settled in and find yourself regretting giving the sellers 12K. Many a person (including me) would have killed to have that sort of money at their disposal when buying their first home. It gives you so much scope for making a place your own, and not just with the furniture. Think of the curtains or blinds you could change, the new carpets and rugs etc. It can take a while to move from the mindset of being a renter living in someone else's place to being in your own home but you'll get there. The desire to start changing things up will kick in but you've spent all that money on someone else's furniture so you don't feel you can change that sofa or the blinds or any of the other people's furnishing choices. If I was in your shoes, I'd be thinking very long and hard about this. It doesn't sound like a good deal at all. Furniture and appliances depreciate like crazy and that is why I advised you to look at DoneDeal to get an idea of what second hand furniture is worth. The sellers will be laughing all the way to the bank and you'll be denying yourselves the opportunity to make your home your own.

Juwwi

12k sounds an absolute rip off , second hand kitchen appliances are worth feck all ,unless nearly new with receipts , the beds you'll probably want to replace anyway .

Sofa will be your most expensive purchase but 12k will buy alot of stuff .

Umaro

12k is so insane to be paying for secondhand furniture, I have to assume there's some expensive boutique pieces or antiques involved - at which point you'd look to get them valued or see receipts.

Do you have an itemized list of what you're getting? You'd be able to fit out a 3 bed apartment for a lot less than 12k.

L1011

12k is a nuts valuation for s/h furniture. Does it include super-premium pieces or other fixtures/fittings like premium appliances?

My living room suite at home cost about 14k new in Arnotts. To the person I bought it from, for €950 when second hand (and in very good condition). That's what happens to even premium products price-wise.

circular flexing

12k is about 11k more than I would be willing to pay for second hand furniture in an apartment.

IKKI

Thank you all. I see that everyone thinks that it is a lot of money. The apartment is decorated and furnished at a very high standard, Looks like a show house, but I suppose that you may be right with 12k being a lot of money. I’ll have a chat with the wife about it.

Thanks!

L1011

circular flexing wrote: »

12k is about 11k more than I would be willing to pay for second hand furniture in an apartment.

Its a 3 bed, so a big bigger than the average apartment but I'd still be looking at quite a low amount for s/h

If there was a super-premium branded suite, basically new; super-premium brand beds with actually new mattresses; Miele/Neff/FisherPaykel/Liebherr appliances etc I'd go higher.

But for normal Irish furniture and appliances, nope. Few grand at the highest - and I'm still unsure if there's appliances involved at all!

circular flexing

L1011 wrote: »

Its a 3 bed, so a big bigger than the average apartment but I'd still be looking at quite a low amount for s/h

If there was a super-premium branded suite, basically new; super-premium brand beds with actually new mattresses; Miele/Neff/FisherPaykel/Liebherr appliances etc I'd go higher.

But for normal Irish furniture and appliances, nope. Few grand at the highest - and I'm still unsure if there's appliances involved at all!

The way I look at it is that the owner doesn't want it so I'm almost doing them a favour by taking it. Even giving away second hand furniture is hard and time consuming these days, never mind trying to sell it.

ladystardust

12k sounds ridiculous for 2nd hand furniture. We got couches with purchase free as sellers didn't want them (good stopgap until we can afford more) bpught our own new bed and new mattresses for spare bed and the rest of the house was carefully curated via adverts. Cost total about 3000 including bed frames/tables/etc. Thats for a whole 4 bed house too.

L1011

IKKI wrote: »

Thank you all. I see that everyone thinks that it is a lot of money. The apartment is decorated and furnished at a very high standard, Looks like a show house, but I suppose that you may be right with 12k being a lot of money. I’ll have a chat with the wife about it.

Thanks!

Value it on what you'd sell it for (quickly); not what it'd cost to buy new replacements. Does it include appliances?

I suspect they're chancing their arm with that price and will drop it massively; as pointed out by another poster its not easy to shift furniture you don't need.

CiboC

I'd say they are massively chancing their arm, they almost certainly have nowhere to put this furniture if you don't want it and they would have to pay to get it taken out.

We recently sold some furniture that was left in the house we bought (we said we didn't want it and got it for free when it was left there!).

6 high quality dining room chairs eventually were sold for 150 euro and I was happy to get rid of them at that price. Look at donedeal for the price of second hand furniture, you would get a lot for 12k!

If I were in your shoes I would say I don't want it and you will probably get offered it at a much lower price or for nothing!

The J Stands for Jay

I think I paid about €1,200 for a double bed, two lockers and a large chest of drawers all new and only the bed needed some assembly, and I felt like I'd overpaid. So €12k for stuff someone else doesn't want seems crazy.

brisan

The vendor obviously does not want or need the furniture
As was stated it is a hassle to get rid of second hand furniture.
tell him you are not interested AT 12k but would consider 2-3 k.
As was stated you will want your own bed and mattress and a good set will cost at least 3k
Never skimp on shoes or beds ,you spend 16 hrs in one and 8 in the other.
A god bed /mattress will help ensure a good nights sleep and that will have a positive effect on every aspect of your life

Roadtoad

Vendor trying a tax dodge, avoiding cgt on part of the deal, or doing the dirt on an x partner?

antix80

IKKI wrote: »

I am currently planning to purchase an apartment and bidding on it. The seller may be willing to include furniture (which both my wife and I like) if we are willing to pay 12k for it.

Op, read between the lines.

You knock 12k off the apartment price and pay him 12k for second-hand furniture.

That way he's saves 4k on capital gains tax and doesn't have the hassle of selling or removing the furniture.

You also gain by having a fully furnished apartment and CGT doesn't come into it for you because you'll be living in it.

So it's win-win. I don't think he is really selling the furniture for 12k. It's just a tax fiddle. Obviously I could be wrong.

frankzappa

OP 12k for 3 full bedrooms , could also be reasonable. It all depends on the quality and the original price paid as many other have said. I am budgeting around 10k-15k to buy new from IKEA to furnish a similar apt spec. ofc new Vs used and durability are all variables hard to "guesstimate".

antix80

antix80 wrote: »

Op, read between the lines.

You knock 12k off the apartment price and pay him 12k for second-hand furniture.

That way he's saves 4k on capital gains tax and doesn't have the hassle of selling or removing the furniture.

You also gain by having a fully furnished apartment and CGT doesn't come into it for you because you'll be living in it.

So it's win-win. I don't think he is really selling the furniture for 12k. It's just a tax fiddle. Obviously I could be wrong.

I hope it's something like this. I'd say you could furnish a 3 bed apartment with new furniture for less than 12k.

antix80

frankzappa wrote: »

OP 12k for 3 full bedrooms , could also be reasonable. It all depends on the quality and the original price paid as many other have said. I am budgeting around 10k-15k to buy new from IKEA to furnish a similar apt spec. ofc new Vs used and durability are all variables hard to "guesstimate".

Rightly enough, to say all the furniture is only worth 2k because it's 2nd hand.. You could pay 2k for a wardrobe, or €20 in svp for a slightly damaged flatpack wardrobe to fit a rental property.

Another thing about IKEA is not everyone likes assembling stuff. I remember my brother hired a van to buy an ikea unit second hand but in perfect condition. When i pointed out he could have bought it new for slightly more, he said it wasn't the cost - he wanted the unit and had no intention of driving to IKEA and spending an evening putting it together.