The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-06-21
FURNISHED FLATS TO RENT.
A Recent Variation In tho Real Estate
business in New York.

A Recent Variation In tho Real Estate
business I'm New York.
A recent variation of the real estate
business in New York has been the
putting upon the market of furnished
flats. Household furniture suitable
for the requirements Of ordinary flats
is now abnormally cheap. The big
Michigan concerns have almost revo-
lutionized the furniture business, and
it is possible to equip a small flat at
almost nominal cost. Some enterpris-
ing individuals, taking advantage OF
this, hire from a landlord either
whole house or so many Of its fats as
may be vacant, for the term Of year
or more. The house or the fats are
furnished in cheap but substantial
style, and then tenants are advertised
for with the result that 1t Is often
easy to secure them for furnished
apartments where unfurnished flats
would be drug in the real estate
market.
There is a large Bohemian class in
New York made up in part or artists.
singers and actors. who have occa-
sion to remain here for perhaps a
month or two at a time, seldom longer
and furnished fiat meets with near
ly all their requirements Again there
are many persons who have not money
enough to furnish fiat as they would
like. but who do not object to pay
ing an additional sum per month for
fiat already furnished.
The new system has both its good
and bad features. Many disorderly
persons seeking the protection which
a fat gives them. and which they could
not receive or expect either in hotel
or in ordinary furnished rooms, pay
liberal prices for furnished fiat in
a building where no embarrassing
questions are asked and no trouble
some regulations are established. The
great majority of the new furnished
flats Of this order are in the central
part of town, and they yield to the
real estate spectators a very large
profit upon the money invested in fur
niture and fixtures.
Among the good features of the
present furnished fat system is to be
put at the head the item of protect
ing from breakage. 1t is an old say
ing that three removals are as bad
as a fire. but actually they are great
deal worse, for against loss by fire
from insurance whereas from losses
by breakage in moving there is none.
The damage to furniture, more es-
pecially to the fragile ornaments
which are a familiar part of every
New York fiat is very great, and this
Item amounts to considerable in a
year to those of a rowing or dissatis-
fled spirit-something not unusual
among the tenants of small flats in
this city.
A familiar figure in many of the
cheaper flats in New York is the in
stallment plan collector, who is fire.
quent and unwelcome visitor Persons
furnishing their own flats on the in
stallment plan are haunted by the
spectacle of this callous and unsym-
pathetic intruder, whereas those who
hire flats already furnished are freed
from the annoyance. In some parts of
the city where the competition for
flats is no longer active, landlords
have found it profitable to furnish their
own fats. The system of furnished
flats is a natural outgrowth of real
estate conditions in New York, and
it is claimed by real estate agents that
it pays very well.-New York Sun.