All Forum Posts by: Carol Frome

I have luxury vinyl tile in my kitchen. You can get stone looks or wood looks. It's a floating floor and does not go under the cabinets. Heavy appliances may cause it to warp. No glue. No nails. It's very easy to install, sort of like putting a puzzle together. I put it right over my old floor. I cut slots around the legs of the appliances and just slid it under each one. So far no problems. It's a very heavy product with treads on the bottom. Each piece is held in place as a result of the rubber tread and side pressure from every other piece. Make sure the seams are tight! You have to use double-sided tape under the perimeter pieces that don't abut the wall where there's a gap between the molding and the floor.

If something happens to one, you just pull it up and put down another, just as you would with carpet tile. It's completely waterproof. The product I bought is made in the UK, but you can get it in the States. I installed it in July. As vinyl goes, it's pricey, but it's easy and seriously fast to do the labor yourself--you don't need any tools other than a square and a box cutter--and in the future if something happens to a square, I can replace it easily with one of the extras that I stored.

I was suggesting doing a google search. Choose the images results at the top of the results screen. You can see not only finished results in white, but what different coats of prime look like. I do have pictures--but when I tried to post them, they posted upside down. In any case, I didn't paint them white. My cabinets are blue--but we made that choice knowing that we will be living here for a long time.

Matt Shields: I actually hired a fellow who did the same thing. Lost $5700! And that was nothing compared to the tens of thousands that he stole from other folks. I am now skeptical about giving any contractor upfront money. Why would a reputable contractor need up front money when most reputable contractors maintain a line of credit at building supply stores? Deliver the goods and do the work; I'll pay in in increments of 1/3, the last third being when the job is complete.

I would paint the cabinets and add inexpensive new pulls. They'll look fresh and new. If you search the topic and in results, click on images, you can see how they look. They will need three coats of prime. People will tell you it's an expensive project that requires taking the cabinets apart and bringing them outdoors to be sprayed, but you don't have to do that. I painted my contractor grade cabinets this past summer with a brush and a small roller. They look good. 

What an idiot am I! I did the calculation incorrectly. The DCR is 1.37. I did it over and it makes sense now. I originally asked my question because the cash flow looked much better than .89. I thought I must be missing something. I was! Thank you all.

Yes. Our goal is to buy and hold. We want cash flow for retirement and are working out of a self-directed IRA. The property manager we have is excellent. In the past few years, we have not lost more than one month's worth of rent to vacancies. That said, it's a SFR, and the property that I am talking about above has two apartments. I don't think apartment renters are as likely to stick as long as house renters.

By the way, on the above numbers, I calculated a 5% vacancy rate and 10% for maintenance.

Would you take a chance on a turnkey SFR (no big capital expenditures necessary) with a DCR of .89 if you had an excellent property manager with a track record regarding vacancies? I've been operating on the assumption that I should have a 1.25 or better DCR.

You're confusing market value with assessed value. Those are two different things. Assessed value is for tax purposes. Market value is selling value. You need to look at sales of comparable houses in the area (preferably in the same neighborhood) to determine market value, which is most often higher than assessed value. Also, make sure you look at sold values, not asking prices.