Best Appliance Brands

[Meghan McCallum]

Hi All,

I hope investing is going as well for everyone else. I am quickly buying properties and I have them all getting work done and its time to buy appliances. A/B properties are all I own and rent to A/B tenants. I am putting in all new appliances, SS for them all. I am looking to hear from other landlords what brands and styles of appliances they have had success with. I also want to know if landlords put garbage disposals in their rentals. I typically tenant proof my rentals (remove ceiling fans, canned lighting instead of fixtures, LED lights, replace all outlets and receptacles, new toilets, and I prefer gut rehabs).

My plan is to buy from Amazon (Prime gets me free delivery, I can get a 5 year warranty plus my CC gives me an additional year of warranty coverage *and miles)

Any life experience tips???

[Marcia Maynard]

For appliances, which ones? Large/Small... Kitchen/Other?

Kitchen: Refrigerator, Range, Range Hood, Microwave, Garbage Disposal, Trash Compactor, Wine Cooler, etc.

Other: Washer, Dryer, Water Heater, Furnace, etc.

Then there are fixtures... Plumbing fixtures and Electrical fixtures, being the most common.

For us, we look at ease of maintenance/repair and ease of cleaning. 

For ease of maintenance/repair, we tend to find the best answers from appliance repair technicians as to which products are the most durable and least prone to problems. They also are on the inside track as to which are the easiest and less costly to repair. Usually those are the ones with fewer electronic parts and fewer extra features.

For ease of cleaning, we tend to find the best answers from our own experience, our cleaning crew, and the tenants/residents who use the appliances on a regular basis. Easy to clean usually means easy to reach, smooth surfaces with few crevices where gunk can hide. Also they don't require any special cleaning products (such as with SS and ceramic top ranges). Those with components that are easy to disassemble for washing seem to rate well.

You were asking for brand names, but the reality is each brand name has their high end and low end products. And as mentioned by @Michael Boyer, there are only a few manufacturers in the business, many hiding behind numerous brand names. In our own home we have Magic Chef kitchen appliances that were installed new in 1986, still running well. Magic Chef is builder's grade of Maytag. Builder's grade products are often thought of as low-end, but actually tend to be a medium grade product that production builders are able to get at the best price-point-to-quality for their homes.

We have our favorites... but I'm not keen on stainless steel. Don't like the look and don't like the extra work involved in keeping them looking nice. Thought we would upgrade to SS in one of our houses and the tenant absolutely hated it. The HGTV shows promote SS, so I can understand the draw.

Tenants of higher end rentals will expect a garbage disposal. We have them in three of our rental houses and haven't had a problem with them. If the tenant knows how to use them properly, then it's fine to include them. Also, it's good for marketing.

We also have ceiling fans in most of our rental units and haven't had a problem with them. It is a feature many tenants enjoy. But really it is more of a style preference. If the unit has AC and good ventilation, then they are not necessary.