@Julian Buick My opinion of a top rated investor or flipper is someone or a company that only wants quality craftsmanship on all of their properties and would never consider hiring a non licensed, bonded or insured company or individual to have work completed.

laminate has been popular for two decades brcause it is clean and tough, just look for laminate that passes for wood it looks so goodGlass is natural, beautiful, eay to clean and reflective...and will be used in different sizes, colors, shapes and paired with other materials for some time to comeGranite or any stone is classic...but as tastes change the preference for colors of granite will change...and yes it will take a backseat to other fresher ideas in countertopsWood ceramic tile will probably last like travertine porcelain tile because they imitate nature...but as tastes change the underlying hues change...goldenish tones giving way to grayish, I think "looks" will date a decor more than individual choices.  

@Troy Fisher I am going to be honest and say I do not visit the properties like I should and when I do I only walk around the exterior of the 5 and 8 unit apartment building and I do not talk to my tenants or see the inside of the individual units.

For a variety of different reasons, it is expensive and cumbersome to develop in L.A. and this can be largely blamed on the fact that starting in the 1960's, much of the control over the building and planning process was delegated to individual communities.So, why isn't the state building like we used to?

I like individual pieces as the quality and speed is so much better.Also if you have an issue with one item breaking then it doesn't affect everything potentially like an all in one does. 

In my state that is lawful; also, we can evict for back rent as well.I can see, as we grow as a business, setting up accounts for each individual tenant can become a burden, i.e, bank fees and tracking all the accounts, etc; notwithstanding, we have enjoyed the freedom of leaving the burden of collection of rent to the bank.I thing as we grow larger we would want to transition of a paypal or pure electronic system, but for now we are OK.

Easy to do if you focus on the money and not on the character of the person with the money.If I knew that money laundering was going on and wanted to report it to the authorities, who would I go to:I can think of....

I recommend listening to the BiggerPockets podcast show #113 (http://biggerpockets.com/show113) which features guest Jay Papasan who is one of the co-authors of the book I mentioned.Good luck!

A few things this has taught me Keeping a property well maintained is definitely enough to stop a tenant (me) from moving Paying for those extra finishing touches seems to not only command higher rents, but also get a higher quality of applicants (and I hope tenants) I very tightly scheduled individual showings.

Do you guys do individual zones for each room?