Tile or Carpet? Maintaining and Updating Your Rental Properties

Whether you have just purchased a new rental property and need to fix it up to get it ready for rental, or you are between tenants and are doing the necessary maintenance and repairs, you have probably been faced with the question of what to do with the current flooring.

Hardwood floors are beautiful, but hard to maintain. Carpet is lovely when first installed, but it's not going to look that way when your tenants move out. Personally, I prefer tile as the flooring of choice for my rental properties. Yes, it is more expensive in the beginning, but it more than pays back with its long lifespan. Carpet may be cheaper, but you will probably find yourself replacing it between tenants, which gets to be quite expensive over time.

Additionally, well laid tile can

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make a really strong impression on potential tenants and can help you get your units occupied faster and for a better rental price. When your tenants move out, there will be no expensive tear-out and reinstallation of carpet. Some straightforward cleaning will have your floors looking great again.

Now, there are parts of the country where tile floors may not be appropriate and you need to opt for carpet. Generally speaking, in the warmer regions, tile is a great choice. If you are renting houses in some of the colder parts of the country, your tenants may expect carpet.

Bottom-line: if you can afford it, and your rental market supports it, opt for tile to begin with and eliminate the headaches that come with carpet as the tenants role in and out of your properties in the years to come.

Until my next post,

James