While rental furniture companies make it easy to rent furniture for your office or business, you have to be on your toes when it comes to furniture rental pricing and costs to make sure you get the best deal available. Whether you choose business pieces from a company that specializes in residential furniture rental or one that caters entirely to business furniture rentals, you must know what you get for your money and what hidden costs may be lurking in the invoice.

As with any business project, you must work to keep your rental furniture costs within your budget. Before you begin renting furniture, you should know exactly how much you can afford to pay. You should also prepare a list of questions before you even visit your local furniture rental business. They are:

1. What is the price range on available pieces of office furniture rental equipment?

2. Who pays the cost of any ongoing maintenance on the furniture rentals?

3. Are there comparable used pieces of rental furniture available at a reduced lease price?

Action Steps
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Furnish your office with workstations provided by a furniture rental businesses

If you need rental furniture, one of your first concerns is probably making sure your employees have a space where they can work efficiently. Renting office furniture workstations and cubicles is rather affordable. With little or no money down, you can find basic three-sided stations for as cheap as $20 a month. More elaborate cubicles with four sides, high walls and larger desks run up to $70 a month.

I recommend: National Office Liquidators provides furniture rental and leasing, and has a rent-to-own program. By paying anywhere from $100 to around $200 down, you can own the furniture after a year of monthly payments. Clone Cubicle also has a program that allows you to buy the cubicle at the end of your lease, either for a $1 closeout or fair market value. Its cubicles start as low as $20 a month.

Look at office furniture rental options for chairs, conference tables and more

You can use an office furniture rental agency to furnish your entire office space, from the couch in the reception area, right down to the art on the walls. Getting all the furnishings you need to lease on one rental furniture contract is probably the way to go. You'll save money on delivery and installation, and even moving expenses and the cost of disposing of the furniture when the time comes.

I recommend: CORT, a furniture rental company, has a number of affordable conference tables that cost as little as $20 a month for cherry wood, and around $30 for mahogany pieces. Its chairs start at under $20 for a standard plush number on wheels, up to almost $80 a month for an ergonomic executive model. The Strong Project is a contemporary furniture manufacturer that leases expensive pieces to start-ups.

Shop around for the best rental furniture deal

There are some furniture rental companies that provide the furniture themselves, like CORT and Clone Cubicle discussed above. There are furniture manufacturers that offer leasing as just one of their financing options. In addition, there are also third party lessors who work with you to finance furniture from an outside vendor. You have plenty of options, so shop around for the best furniture rental pricing and costs.

I recommend: Capital Funds Leasing will finance up to $5 million worth of office furnishings for qualified customers, with two months worth of payments are due at the signing. Barclay Associates sets new businesses up with leases worth as much as $49,000 for business owners whose credit score is at least 640. The Harris Leasing Company finances as much as $250,000 in equipment and furniture, and lets customers pay it back over up to 60 months.

Furniture rental serves a wide variety of needs. Some businesses may wish to use furniture rental companies to outfit their offices. In other cases, you may work in real estate and need residential furniture rental services.

Either way, you'll find to rent furniture is a very simple process. It can save you a lot of money on overhead if you only require the rental furniture pieces for a short period of time.

1. Browse the catalogs of furniture rental companies. You can compare different prices of each piece and get an idea of the style you wish to select.

2. Contact a furniture rental and leasing agency. They'll dispatch one of their agents to your location and give you an estimate on the rental furniture.

3. Sign a contract with the furniture rental business. After selecting your rental furniture, the furniture rental and leasing company will set the terms of your agreement. Within the contract, you should find lease dates, pricing information, and costs associated with any damage to the rented furniture.

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Locate an office furniture rental company

When you wish to set up a lease agreement for office furniture rentals, you want a company who specializes in this type of supply. Many office furniture rental companies will have all components of workstations and common office areas for rent.

I recommend: For a nationwide office rental company, contact OFRA. They have distribution centers set up throughout the United States. Fill out their short request form to have a sales agent contact you about renting furniture. You can contact the agents at Churchill Furniture Rental as well about similar services.

Set up an appointment with a business that specializes in residential furniture rental

Most companies will either carry office or residential furniture rentals. With a residential furniture company, they'll offer a selection of sofas, dining tables, beds, coffee tables, and more.

I recommend: With CORT, you can see the different pieces of residential furniture rentals they carry for each room of a house. Take time to also browse the online catalog of home rental furniture pieces from Aaron Rents, Inc.

Arrange delivery of your furniture rentals

Most furniture rental companies will work with you to get your furniture out to you as soon as possible. Avoid rental agencies with a long backlog of lease orders, even if you're not in a big hurry for your rental pieces.

I recommend: You can arrange for quick delivery of your furniture through the furniture rental company, Brook Furniture Rental. You can lease residential or office furniture for up to twelve months for very low rates. With OfficeFurniture2go.com, you'll get both quick and free delivery on your furniture rentals.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  In the last few years, the home staging business has grown substantially. Home owners looking to sell their property hire a home stager to appeal to as many buyers as possible. If you're in this area of real estate, you can greatly benefit from residential furniture rentals.

Renting furniture for your business can be a wise move in any set of circumstances. Furniture rental is a great option for start-up businesses or for existing businesses expanding, hiring temporary employees or special events. Renting furniture allows business to expand or reduce easily, spend capital on other investments and get much-needed tax deductions on rental payments. When considering all options, remember the following furniture rental key terms.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Office furniture

Office furniture are pieces used to enhance the functionality in an office; all office needs vary, but common office furniture includes desks, cubicles, file cabinets, shelves, and desk chairs.

I recommend: Visit the website of Office Furniture Rental Alliance to see the huge variety of furnishings that are available for rental.

Home furniture

Home furniture, or residential furniture, consists of anything commonly used to furnish a home such as couches, dining sets, entertainment centers, coffee tables, beds and dressers. A business might rent home furniture to set up temporary displays or sell a product.

I recommend: Browse through the inventory at Brook Furniture Rental to see all the different types and styles of home furniture available for rent.

Furniture leasing agency

A furniture leasing agency, also called a rental company or agency, is a company that has a large inventory of a wide variety of furniture types and styles available for rent for a monthly fee. Leasing agencies likely rent on either short or long-term leases.

I recommend: Get a better idea of what a furniture leasing company can do for your business by reading about one the industry leaders, CORT.

Warranty

A warranty is a guarantee that the furniture is of the quality and condition stated by the rental company, and includes repair or replacement if the furniture fails to meet the warranty.

I recommend: View a sample furniture rental warranty from Modernline Furniture.

Installation services

Installation services, which includes delivery, set-up and assembly, should be included in the rental contract for no additional charge.

I recommend: Learn more about the process of office furniture installation services by a company like One Work Place.

Space planning

Space planning is an additional service that rental agencies may offer, in which you give them a brief description of your needs and the size of the office, and they will determine your best fit for furniture and how the space can be maximized through arrangement of the furniture.

I recommend: Find out more information on what installation services consist of at the website of PecksOffice Plus.