All Forum Posts by: Sean Autry

This is a spin-off of a question I posted earlier.

What spec LVP are landlords using our there? I used 4mm on a rental and had it trashed in 1 year/1 tenant. In another unit it’s working out great, but I’m looking for something to withstand a bad tenant.

Clearly 4mm is too thin, so where’s the sweet spot???

@Thomas S.- I agree with Thomas except that a higher DP absolutely will increase cash flow, it’ll just do it at the sacrifice of your return... I prefer keeping the return high, and placing the cash in other deals...

same point either way- it’s not about the $ amount of the cash flow as much as it’s about the % return.

@Michael Baradell- 12% cash on cash minimum. I don't set a $ limit, because I can just put a lot down to achieve that and have a crummy return... so 12% CoC at least.

@Michael J.- love it. Thanks for the feedback. The feel pads were mentioned by someone else too. Such a simple and cheap solution. They’ll be in every one of our welcome packages going forward.

Regarding spare floors, I have a few planks that might replace the bathroom, but that’s about it... still deciding what we’re going to do... new tenants seem to be accepting of it, and frankly told us they just don’t want it to hinder THEIR deposit. So hopefully we get another “turn” or two from these so I can at least salvage a few years of use

@Irina Belkofer- thank you. I considered tile but (1) it’s expensive to demo once it’s out of style/favor with tenants, and (2) it’s more expensive (I think)

We’re still open to it, but we’re going to try a thicker vinyl first and see how that goes. Fingers crossed.

@Marc Winter- @Marc Winter- LOL... I had a good laugh at a couple points in your comment.

I think one of our bigger takeaway here is consistent inspections. We let that unit go a year without inspections... this is our first rental (triplex) and we have learned a TON, and been naive on some stuff. Thankfully we got it at a price that affords is these lessons... not that I want to be learning them this way, but hey- that’s life and business.

@Thomas S.- what do you normally use? I agree. I’ve learned my lesson on 4mm. Now I need to find that sweet spot because the higher up that layer you go, the price obviously follows.

I’m curious to here what type of layer others are going with.

@Marian Smith- INCREDIBLY valuable advice in just your first sentence. So simple, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before. Going forwards felt moving pads will be in the welcome packet on ALL my rentals. “Protect your deposit and use these moving pads on all furniture”.

Cheap insurance- I love it.

@John Underwood, yeah... I was trying not to overspend for the area, and figured 4mm would do the trick... ironically, if you’re going cheap “for the area”, those are probably the areas you need the most durability!

Lesson learned I guess... how thick of a layer do you typically go with?

@Jim K., thank you for the input. Agreed- we don’t allow pets either.... I really don’t know how they managed to do so much damage in a year. The other unit was installed same time- the floors are spotless.