The best way to avoid furniture supply chain issues!

Raise your hand if the supply chain issues of the past several months have impacted your life? (I’m raising my hand!) Statistically speaking that should be almost all of us, right?! Furniture deliveries especially have been affected in a huge way. And as with all things real estate, whatever the news of the day is either quickly or not so quickly starts trickling into the market. 

What we’ve seen over the past several weeks is deals starting to include the sale of furniture along with the home. Some sellers see the lack of new furniture as an opportunity to set their listing apart, and are therefore including the furniture as part of the sale. Other times buyers are requesting all or some of the furniture during negotiations. 

For sellers especially, including furniture can greatly cut down on logistics. For one, it means you won’t have to pay to move it. Plus, there are never any guarantees that the furniture that fits in a current home will fit in the new place. Just make sure that you have enough furniture for your new home because...supply chain issues! 

If done right, buying and selling furniture alongside a real estate deal is relatively straight forward. However, there is one very important watch out to know about. The number one thing to know is that any and all personal property going from seller to buyer should be included in a separate bill of sale, NOT on the real estate contract. There isn’t a lender out there that will be excited to see any type of personal property on a contract (TV, audio visual equipment, etc). The mortgage the bank is lending you is for the value of real estate alone, not personal property. Payment for the furniture is also a totally separate transaction – usually a buyer brings a check to closing made out directly to the seller. 

Including furniture in a real estate transaction can be a great win-win solution for both buyers and sellers if executed properly. A handful of our deals over the past several weeks have included furniture and everyone was so happy in the end!