FF&E: Furnish and Equip Your Vacation or Executive Rental in Five Days

In the process of purchasing a vacation rental and am so glad I purchased this book. The book depicts it's title and does so perfectly ! It truly is a guide on hoe to furnish and equip your vacation rental right down to the plates in the cupboard to the light in the ceiling. I found a lot of valuable information in each chapter and even photographs to spark one's creativity.This book also provides some helpful tips. An example, take pictures of serial numbers for insurance purposes, how to display knick knacks in groupings, creating a relaxing atmosphere... Not to mention all the helpful websites cited in the book. My recommendation is BUY the book as it is such a small investment for such a large rate of return on your investment...even if you just find two or three helpful tips.

Thin and not terribly realistic. I can sum this up and say hire everyone to do everything for you and MAYBE you might have a vacation rental set up in 5 days. Be prepared to spend a ton of money to do it that way. And god help you if you have to put anything together or paint anything or install any kind of towel racks, etc..There is very little here to help you handle contingencies like what if the cable doesn't get installed when it is suppose to? She doesn't really seem to address issues at all. She is assuming you are going to buy every single thing at top dollar and that you have crews to set everything up and nothing goes wrong. I set up a beach house in 3 weeks. There were closing delays, internet didn't go in time like it was suppose to due to this being a brand new condo, and there were issues with items getting delivered when they are suppose to. I tried to save myself a lot of work up front by scheduling every single thing before the closing period but that only helped a little and it ended up hurting a lot more when closing slipped. I'd say this book is good for a smaller home or an apartment that is very basic. I had a much more complicated setup with a 4 bedroom beach house. Some of the items we ordered needed extra work on them and there was very little to get around that. We have a bunk room and just couldn't get the triple bunks we needed in a finished form without a lot of lead time and a whole lot of cash. We ended up finishing them ourselves along with a few other Ikea style items. We had Rooms to Go deliver a couple of rooms but to have them do every single room in the house would have cost a small fortune. We hired movers to do much of the heavy lifting. We used the architectural diagrams to get furniture perfectly spaced up front before closing. I would highly recommend only shopping with these diagrams. Some things I tried to do to speed up the process as well - I rented a storage unit and had as much as I could delivered there. The movers moved everything in on closing day. This allowed me to purchase things while I waited for closing to happen and get straightened out.This book could be better organized and made a little more realistic by creating a section on the pre-closing period and what you can do during that time. Another section on what to do when things go wrong or how to avoid having things go wrong would be helpful as well. Advice to anyone setting up something out there - if your place is brand new construction make sure you let the internet and cable people know that up front. They don't ask and on the install day you are stuck with a reschedule when they can't set you up.

Even if I am not doing it all in 5 days, I found this book most helpful in planning and furnishing our vacation home / rental home. I used the lists and recommended websites. Extremely good book if you want to know what to do to prepare a welcoming, professional looking home.

I was fortunate to find this wonderful resource upon purchasing my Scottsdale property. It is generously packed with worthwhile tips, tricks, checklists, photos and must have inventory lists that I am thankful to disclose saved me a considerable amount of valuable time. There is no guess work involved here, because the author thought of everything!I found the information provided to be well thought out and organized. I credit this book for assisting me in furnishing and setting up my property in record time. I have an extremely desirable property that is not only highly praised but also well sought out by renters.I am very pleased and recommend this book; follow this author’s savvy advice and you will be too!

If you are interested in furnishing and setting up a great vacation or rental property this book is an absolute must have. The one thing I enjoyed most was all the well-organized, detailed information given to help the reader move along and get the job done in as little as five days! Ms. Ericksen did a wonderful job explaining in great detail (and with a wonderful sense of humor) just what to purchase, how to place each item and when and how to do it. She also included many pictures and checklists to help the reader along (checklists included: purchasing furniture, equipment and supplies and inspecting the property before and after the job is done). Also included in her book are many online resources which are also very helpful. This book is an easy to read, well-written guide - I highly recommend it!

Anita Ericksen has compiled a great guide to starting up a vacation rental in her book FF&E, Furnish and Equip Your Vacation or Executive Property in Five Days. This handy guide includes shopping lists, to-do tasks and appendices that you can take to the furniture shop or home decorating store. While you may not agree with all of her design choices, you cannot argue with the process that she lays out for you. There are some Canadian specific recommendations for stores (Ms. Ericksen resides in Alberta) but there should be no problem finding equivalents in the United States.If you're considering converting or purchasing a property with the intent of turning it into a vacation or executive rental, you should read this book first and you will have a much more thorough understanding of what it is going to take to make your effort a success.Bert SimonisCEO[...]

I have been considering investing in a vacation property for some time and this book is the perfect guide. Anita Ericksen has obviously done this before. Her advice and step-by-step guidelines are great. I am amazed that it can be done in such a short period of time. The book is an easy read and has great checklists to get things done efficiently. The book highlights many details I would have missed and I like the sense of humour injected here and there in the book. I definitely recommend it.