Tim Hubbard recommends hardwood, tile, and vinyl plank for rental properties. Hardwood lasts longest and looks good. Tile works best in wet areas but feels cold. Vinyl plank is cheapest and installs fast over existing floors. Skip wall-to-wall carpet and use area rugs instead.
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I've got an amazing topic for you guys this week. This might be the most exciting topic in almost 90 episodes. Probably the sexiest topic. Yeah, we're talking about flooring this week. Okay. Obviously it's not super sexy, but it's super important. And so I want to break down my favorite options that I've used investing in properties for over the last 10 years. And also some things to consider with our short term rentals and changing flooring. So stay tuned. Let's jump right in. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. Quick, actionable ideas to help you along your real estate investment journey, but with a specific focus on short term rentals. So there's going to come a time where we need to change our flooring. Right. Because it wears out. Not all flooring lasts forever. Although I do have properties that are over 100 years old and they still have the original hardwood. So this leads me to my favorite flooring options. I've got three of them and one of them is hardwood because it can be re sanded, it can be resurfaced, it can be stained to change the color. And so it's very durable and it can last a lifetime. So I really, really like hardwood floor. And especially in these older properties, it just gives it a ton of character. So that's a really good option, but it's not the cheapest. Right. So two of my other favorites, one is going to be tile. And tile is great, but it doesn't fit all applications right. If you put tile in a whole property, well, it might not feel as warm. And of course this depends on the tile. There's so many options at so many different price points that it's really hard to break down. But I really like tile because it's durable and a lot of times we'll see this in mudrooms or, or entryways places where we are going to have more water or dirty shoes and things like that. So I think it's always pretty good in those entry places. A third option, these are my top three. So hardwood floor tile and then vinyl plank. And if you haven't heard of vinyl plank before, it's probably one of the most popular options that's popped up in the last few years because there's some really good affordable prices. The application, the installation can go over existing misting flooring. It depends on the type of flooring. Obviously if it's not smooth and even underneath, then you're going to have to fix that first. But there's two different types of vinyl plank flooring. There's Like a, the click in type, which you see if with a lot of engineered hardwood. And then there's the glue down vinyl plank. And it's a really good affordable option. There's lots of different colors. The thing I like about all three of these options is that they're easy to clean. Right. And with short term rentals, this is something that we need to be cognizant of. It's super important. If we don't have clean floors, if they don't look clean, then we're not going to have good reviews. Then pretty soon you've got a guest that just isn't happy and they're not having a good experience. So those are my top three favorites. The question comes up, when should we change our flooring? Well, are you getting negative reviews about your flooring? Is it hardwood floor that maybe has ran its lifetime and it can't be resurfaced anymore, or there's a few places where it's messed up? If you've got carpet in there, I think that's probably the first type of flooring to go. And why? Because it gets stained and there's only so many times you can clean it. I would say that carpet adds a whole kind of cozy sense to our rentals. So it's nice to have. But we don't, we don't want to have our whole flooring as carpet. Instead we can add area rugs. You might find some exterior area rugs. They're going to hold up a lot better. But you can add them over your tile or your hardwood floor, your vinyl plank, and it's going to give a little, a little more warmth, a little more coziness to your rental just as an option. But remember, you're going to have to, you're going to have to clean those rugs also. And they do get stained, I would say in terms of cost. Well, that is just across the board. There's so many options these days, which is great, but also makes it a little more hard to decide. So I, I like to use a flooring that can be combined with a lot of different furniture options. So something not too dark and not too light, very neutral. And there's tons and tons of good options. Depends on where we are in the States or where we are in the world though when it comes to insulation, tile. If you didn't have tile to begin with or if you're replacing tile, that takes the most work, right? You've got to make sure the surface is super level, otherwise your tiles are going to crack. If they get put down, you've got to grout them and you got to put the mortar underneath. And so that's, that's going to be a lot of work. Hardwood, of course, can also be a ton of work. Vinyl plank is the easiest. And so that's what we've been going with recently for a lot of my properties, just because it's easier and it's faster. And that faster point brings up another good point. If we have a rental that's already furnished and we're already operating as a short term rental, well, then we need to make sure we block our calendar for enough time and don't block it for too short. We want to give ourselves some cushion because these things always tend to take longer than we expect or want them to take. So make sure you're blocking your calendar for a long enough period of time. But you also got to consider where you're going to put the furniture, right? If we got a whole house full of furniture, we got a whole living room. If we're only changing a room or something like that, we've got to have a place to put it. So consider that that's going to take a little bit of work as well. The other thing we want to consider with flooring is how long it's going to last for. We're in this for the long run, right? We're building wealth. That's why we're investing in real estate. Real estate has made more people wealthy than any other asset class in the United States and probably the world, I would argue. And we want to have materials in our properties that are going to last for a long time. So don't go too cheap if, if it's not going to last long. You know, different laminate flooring and hardwood flooring has different thicknesses. Don't get the thinnest one. You know, people can feel this too, you know, when they're walking. So just remember that. And the flooring is really going to shape our environment. You know, let's say we walk into a, an old school rental in Paris that has flooring that's 400 years old, giant wide oak, brick plank flooring that can have some nicks and, and scuffs in it. And, and that's still going to work because it fits the property, right? But if that is wood flooring in a 1980s or a 1990s property and it's got scuffs and dings in it, well, people are just going to think that it's dirty and, and not well maintained. So we got to make sure that our flooring fits our environment. And remember that whatever type of flooring we add in changes the way that we feel when we walk into the space. So I would say tiles got more of like a kind of colder feel, especially if you don't have any area rugs or anything on top of it. Hardwood can be a little more cozy. Same with vinyl planks. So just keep that in mind. Flooring's super important. I know this wasn't the most fun topic, but it's something that's going to come up. We've got to change our flooring at certain times, so let's go with something that's going to last for a long time, and let's consider the time that it's going to take to change the flooring in a property if it's already operating. That's super important, and we don't want to cut ourselves short. So until next time, if you're going through a renovation project, keep these things in mind, and I will see you next time. Take care and have a wonderful day.
