You need to stop being timid and lay the law down better 

I'm also laying the groundwork so that if there is a market downturn I'm ready to take advantage of it with my own funds and the network of people behind me that like what I'm doing right now.

I can help you crunch the numbers.The thing about investing in the USA is that you are laying a 30% premium due to exchange rate.And you need to put more cash down.  

My question is should I tile or do the pre-fab.

You can bet the tile guy who didnt get the border quite straight on the attorneys backsplash either ripped it out and redid it or didn’t get paid.

If you want to be intellectually complete and steer away from motivated reasoning you'll need to lay out the counter positions to all of your assumptions. 

You can find China already using some interesting technology to lay bricks.

As someone who plans to relocate for her long distance relationship, I’m sticking it out for a year or two in my state building up my portfolio a tad and laying the groundwork for a small passive income.

@Jim Webster @Jonathan Pflueger yes, definitely something else going on...I'm a licensed MLO here in CA (nmls 1503643) I've mentioned before that lenders have "over-lays" which are extra guidelines, and it sounds like you are only getting one opinion, maybe not the correct one. 

Service people usually know about this flaw because they have encountered it during their work experience -- most tenants (in my experience) have no clue how easily vinyl flooring can be damaged in this manner.I would be tempted to leave the floor as is, then at tenant turnover, remove the vinyl and install tile.