Engineered vs Laminate

[Nancy Zhao]

What do you guys do for flooring on nicer(750k+) flips? 

I generally use budget engineered hardwood(~$4/sqft, 6-7" wide, 3/8" thick) for everything but after spending almost two weeks trying to match stair treads with the flooring on my current project, I gave up and decided to use a nice laminate instead.

The way I see it, here are the pros and cons:

Engineered Pros: You can tell the buyer it's hardwood.

Engineered Cons: Somewhat more expensive, not as pretty unless you go high end which are much more expensive. Extremely difficult to match trim pieces(especially stairs) if the manufacturer does not make a good quality one.

Laminate Pros: Looks, huge 10"x80" planks for only $3/sqft. Cost. Ease of finding coordinating trim pieces.

Laminate Cons: Looks, repetitive patterns are a concern. Not a selling point to buyers. 

Right now I'm leaning towards laminate on everything with stairs unless the home reaches the mid- high 1 million range. What do you guys think?

[Patrick Liska]

I know the market in California is different then New Jersey but if i saw a 750k+ house and it had all laminate, i wouldn't buy it, can't stand the stuff. if it had engineered flooring that was glued down, i would consider it but at that price range i would want real hardwood floors in my house. like i said the market is different there and perhaps you can use that material there for that price range, what do other houses in the area use for their floors at that price range? and are they selling?  talk with a local realtor or hopefully an investor in that area that's on BP will read this post and could answer you.