Quality vs replaceable?

[Andrew Angerer]

Hey everyone, I belong to a local REI facebook group which recently had a discussion about carpet, do you buy cheap carpet and replace every time a tenant leaves? Or do you buy quality and hope for the best when you clean it?

The conversation became about much more than carpet of course, discussing paint, drywall etc etc.

My question to you all is, do you prefer quality or do you buy cheap and replace? Id love to hear what you all think, I am more in the replace category.

[Greg M.]

Perhaps it depends on the area of the country you are in, but why put carpet in a rental unit? Carpet is guaranteed to have problems, retain smells, need cleaning, get stained, burned, show wear patterns, and furniture marks. 

Why not spend a little more upfront and put in decent vinyl flooring that is not that much more expensive, but has a long life and holds up way better than carpet? This way you won't have to be arguing with the tenants about how much they should pay to replace the carpet after 2 years and what the depreciation schedule of carpet is. It also looks way better than carpet.