All Forum Posts by: Ian Dyer

What hard flooring do you recommend? 

We'd like to find one SPC or better product and color that will be available for hopefully 8 to 15 years or more. Any suggestions?

We manage 150+ units. We use only hard flooring throughout, no carpet. We want to use the SAME flooring in all. The problem is that flooring manufacturers change what they offer, every few years. We'd rather use the same product and color for many years, so that, on move-outs, if a small area or one room needs replaced, it matches. We've done that for years with Home Depot laminate. But we switched to SPC because it's waterproof. It has held up way better than laminate. But, our supplier just stopped offering the color we've been using. 

We switched to SPC because we wanted to get away from the Home Depot low end laminate, because it failed when it got wet, such as by exterior doors and in kitchens/baths (we didn't use it in kitchens/baths at all because of that). We'd used it for years, and put vinyl in the K/BA. 

After laminate and before SPC, 5 years or so ago, we tried Home Depot's Trafficmaster Cherry LVT, because we'd seen a bunch of recommendations for it from landlords. It didn't turn out well. It had to sit in the home for 24 hours before being installed, to get to the proper temperature/humidity. Then, once installed, there was shrinkage/expansion in hotter and colder times when homes were vacant or unheated/cooled, creating gaps. So we know that Home Depot TrafficMaster LVT is not the solution we want. 

We then went to SPC, which stands for "Stone Plastic Composite", also called "Stone Polymer Composite". https://www.flooringinc.com/bu... (That's a link to the definition/comparison. It's not where we buy it). We pay $1.29/sf plus tax & delivery to an independant supplier in SoCal, and it doesn't need underlayment. We're happy with it, but they just changed the product and color after two years and can't get the one we've been buying. We need one where the produce and color won't change, so we can use it for many years on all move-outs.

Home Depot and Lowes don't have a reasonably priced good quality SPC, nor do they seem to have one that will be in stock in the same product and color long term.

I know that flooring manufacturers are always changing their products, because that's best for sales. But I also know there's a huge market of landlords who would love to have access to a good product that doesn't change in color or type over time.

Who has an SPC or other hard flooring they like, that is likely to be available long term?

Robert Allen's original "Nothing Down" is still a book I highly recommend. 

California now requires that employers with 5 or more employees have a retirement plan for them. Either use the free CalSavers state plan, or use a private company. We'd like to consider paid plans, because the program run by the State of California seems likely to be poorly run and get worse over time. ANY RECOMMENDATIONS?

We contacted Ubiquity and Betterment and Guideline. We also talked to Vanguard, who we've enjoyed working with for other things, but since 2020 they've been horribly hard to reach, so we prefer not to work with Vanguard. 

If you've been working with a company you like, please reply.

Joe Splitrock,,

1. Do you pay for Google Voice business, or just use a personal number? 

2. We have 3 staff who all need to be able to text from their computers, and all be able to work from the same inbox. Will Google Voice let us do that? 

Funny post. So true.

Do you use a business texting program from your desktop computer, or just from your phone?

Inspect every 6 months. Have them fix anything that is broken or damaged and paint on walls with marks. This is the OPPOSITE advice of several opinions above. Most of our move-outs have very little work needed, because we inspect every 6 months and have them fix whatever we find at the inspection. Of course, if it's not tenant-caused, we fix it right away. Yes, we do more maintenance/repairs during the tenancies, but we have little to do on move-out because it's in good shape. 

This is for you if you have money in the bank earning 1% interest or less, and you want to earn more, but still be protected.

Strong borrower with strong references and excellent credit. Borrower has done this a number of times over the past 27 years. It worked well for both sides.  

Earn 3% secured by a first trust deed on California real estate, with 70% loan to value, from borrower with perfect credit.? Borrower has a number of properties. Two are Southern California mobile home parks. One is three unit property in South Orange County. One is a high quality commercial building (retail downstairs, office suites upstairs). Depending on the property, amount you loan can be $500,000 to $15,000,000.

This is a win-win. You make 3% on money that would make 1% or less in the bank, and you're fully secured by a first trust deed (with title insurance) on a solid Southern California property. Borrower gets a 3% loan without points and fees.

Reply if you're interested. Borrower will provide credit report with 800+ FICO, and also letters from various private lenders who have lent to borrower over many years.

Drew Sygit - How do you know which unit each payment is for, when the tenants deposit it to your bank account? Do you give them a deposit slip or some way of connecting their deposit with their unit number? Thanks!

Scott M - Thank you for that thorough response. I appreciate it!