Buy rugs and put in main area'sOr give tenant the money to do the same.It is the cheapest and easiest until you have two vacancies at once.

Being that I don’t want to pull the rug out from under these people, I’m considering raising rents to 1200?

I think you should be fine, but maybe put an area rug on the concrete?

If I'm doing de minimis, it doesn't really matter if the IRS for some reason thinks the area rugs should last 5 years and not 3 in a furnished rental.I want to do everything de minimis not even because I can take the deduction now but also because it's just that much less to track, year over year.

They will be buying nice furnishings, they will clean it after every guest, they will make sure the sink isn't clogged, they the rugs don't get torn, they fix everything bad immediately. 

The HOA told me that would be ok as long as I also had several area rugs. 

Renting our our carpet cleaner for the day may be best bet I have used rental cleaners (Rug Doctor), own my own cleaner (Bissell) and hire cleaners (steam van type).

But that’s dishonest and grimy and I don’t want to make a landlord feel like the rug is pulled out from under them or hate me before the lease even begins. 

Persian rugs, antiques, solid wood, leather upholstery.  

Another trick for maybe bedrooms or a living room is, you buy some throw rugs and put them down.