Tile the bathroom floor?

[Michael Healy]

So, I'm in a bit of a debate with my handyman, who has serviced one of my two multi-families for years (prior to my buying it two months ago...)  All the bathrooms have vinyl sheet flooring. One tenant complained that her bathroom flooring was flaking off around the radiator, and since I wouldn't want vinyl sheet flooring in my own bathroom I replaced it with ceramic tile for not quite the cost of one month's rent. I also upgraded the toilet from a water waster to a more efficient one.  I didn't even think twice about it. All paid for out of gross rents from my two properties.

Some background...I do pretty well after having worked in the same non-real estate field progressively over nearly 25 years, so I'm in this for cash flow and appreciation but do understand that I'll be investing in improving building over the next year. So I'm not living off what I earn in real estate but hope to someday not too far in the future.

My handyman's take is, install the cheapest thing and be done with it. Personally, though, I take pride in my product and want my apartments to be of a quality where I'd want to live there...not Architectural Digest but durable, classic, and clean.

Can you invest in quality and also do well over the long term?