Type of floors to put in for renovation?

[Shiva Bhaskar]

Hello friends,

I need some help on flooring. I purchased a SFR in a gated community in Los Angeles County (Gardena, for those who know the area), earlier this year. This home is a 3 bedroom, just over 1900 square feet, and was built in 2004. This is a buy and hold property, and the area has been transitioning from lower middle class for decades, to more affluent in recent years, with another gated community opening up next door to where we purchased, although there isn't really more room to develop in the area.

 Everything about the property is quite modern and competitive with other properties in our area, if not better. The one thing that I think is an issue is it's carpeted throughout, whereas many of the comps I've seen have some sort of hardwood floor, so I figured it would be good to make that change out of carpet. The current tenant (we took over an existing lease). has chosen to move to a different city, so they vacate the property on May 31. 

The issue is, I seem to be getting a variety of opinions on what to put in next for flooring. My realtor, who also happens to own a number of rental houses in the LA area himself, suggests that we put in high-quality hardwood flooring (especially since we'll be holding this for at least the next 4 or 5 years, given that the area is appreciating well). I've had another landlord friend tell me to go with vinyl, since hardwood can get water and other damage, and we may have tenants with young children (just based on the demographics of the area). I've heard other folks who like laminate (cheaper obviously). 

Does anyone have feedback on what they'e liked in their houses? For some idea of the rental values, comps in the area tend to go for between $2950 to $3050, and we bought the property for $535 K. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. 

[Karen Margrave]

Years ago (2004)  I used Shaw vinyl plank flooring on my house in Redding, CA. It's had a lot of hard living, with over 14 people living in the house, large gatherings, motorcycle boots, cowboy boots, etc. That vinyl looks as good today as the day it was installed. 

In our higher end spec houses in southern CA where humidity was a concern we used engineered wood, which holds shape better than hardwood. The engineered wood had a really good warranty. I think you can see both if you go on to my website. 

The new vinyl looks just like wood, with texture, etc. which wasn't available back when I installed mine. It's beautiful.