Buying a rental home with a carpet already installed may give you a great surprise. Some homes have beautiful hardwood floors covered by the carpet. But should you let it stay hidden, or should you remove the carpet? For some property owners, carpeted floors would be the way to go— it would be the most economical and efficient choice for them. However, for others, revealing those hardwood floors may be the very thing they need to do to get much higher rental income and better tenants. The bottom line is not to rush to a decision but to consider both the pros and cons of exposing your rental property’s hardwood floors.
When choosing between carpet and hardwood flooring in your Sammamish rental property, think about these few things. Hardwood floors can be an attractive feature in a rental home. It is beautiful and durable— traits that few carpets can match. But this doesn’t mean that the best choice will be hardwood all the time. Not all rental homes would benefit from it. You will need to consider the type of tenant you have, the resale value of the property, the neighborhood, and the cost of preparing and maintaining each flooring type. These things need to be determined before choosing to permanently remove your rental’s carpeting.
Different tenants would view the upgrade of a hardwood differently. They wouldn’t share the same reaction. Some tenants are conscientious and may appreciate the beauty of a hardwood floor and see that it is worth the added responsibility of keeping the floor clean and dry. However, there are also tenants that may only damage the floor, making it look ugly. For instance, if they own pets and heavy furniture, they can easily scratch or gouge a wood floor. Some tenants may prefer hardwood floors for more than the way it looks. For people who suffer from allergies, carpets make life more difficult. Hard floor surfaces are very much preferred since they are easier to keep clean and free of dust. But if the tenant doesn’t know how to properly care for hardwood and uses harsh cleaning products or scrubs it really hard, they could easily damage it.
Beyond appearance, rental property owners should make the property’s current and future value the starting point of their flooring choices. Because value is often influenced by a property’s location and nearby homes, it would be good to know if the other homes in the neighborhood feature hardwood or carpet floors. If most of the homes have carpet, then it may be safe to assume that removing yours may not be the best option to take. There are exceptions, though. If your neighborhood is undergoing a renewal, offering upgrades like a hardwood floor may be just the thing your rental house needs to stand out from the other homes.
Finally, there are costs you need to think about when making the decision to permanently remove your rental home’s carpet. While you may save on the cost of replacing the carpet every five years, removing the carpet and preparing the floor for your next tenant isn’t free. There are additional expenses you will have to pay. For one, newer hardwood finishes are very durable when compared to the old ones, but there’s a good chance that the floor under your rental’s carpet won’t be exactly new.
The years spent lurking beneath a layer of the carpet hasn’t helped the hardwood either. So, exposing a hardwood floor means that it would require refinishing, and then regular maintenance after that to make sure its condition doesn’t degrade. Of course, each step of this process would involve some amount of cost, but knowing how much you’d have to invest would allow you to make a well-informed decision.
After going through all the relevant details and after getting all the necessary information, you can confidently decide whether exposing your rental property’s hardwood floors is a smart move for your rental home.
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