All Forum Posts by: Lee L.

Hi BPers,

Sorry this post might seem a little spammy, but I thought I'd share this with the community.

One of our perennial favorites, Ultra Allure Vinyl Plank Flooring is on sale at Home Depot today under their daily deals. It's $2.20 per square foot, making it just 10% more than the cheaper Allure.

Since the Ultra stuff does not use the glue strips like the cheaper Allure, it's completely waterproof, so you could do the hardwood look throughout the entire house -- including bathrooms and kitchens.  Love this stuff!

@Ryan HaaseIt sounds like the machines don't break down often, but they do break down. I wouldn't even know where to begin in fixing these, except to call a technician. To that end, the Protection Plan sounds pretty good:

It looks like you can get an Admiral 3.6 washer for around $400 - $450 out the door depending on the sale and extra accessories. A 5-year HD protection plan is available for $80, and assume you replace it after 5 years. That's $530, or $8.83 a month for the machine and the service. Doesn't seem too bad. 

The plan claims the following:

"If We Can't Repair It, We'll Replace It!*

• Day 1 coverage with no hidden fees or deductibles
• In-home service by authorized, pre-screened technicians"

The plan is actually through a company Asurion Consumer Solutions. I noticed the it includes the following language:

(15) PRODUCTS USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES (MULTI-USER ORGANIZATIONS) PUBLIC RENTAL OR COMMUNAL USE IN MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING (USE OF A PRODUCT FOR THESE PURPOSES WILL VOID THIS PLAN)

Judging by the statement above, it seems to indicate that putting in W/D in tenant occupied units would be covered under the policy, or maybe I am incorrect. It explicitly excludes W/D's in communal areas (ie: a laundry area shared by all the tenants). 

If someone has experience with these protection plans, and whether or not it would include those machines installed "en-suite", please share! 

@Roy N. I love your idea of using the interest free financing at HD. This I think would also make their protection plans more attractive. Think I'll go with that strategy next time around for my "en suite" W/D's. 

@Steve Olafson@Roy N.@Barbara G.

@Barbara G.@Ryan Haase

Sounds like you guys have a lot of experience with putting these in. I just got hook-ups put in one of my units. I'm thinking of putting them in to my other units. But I heard washing machines use quite a lot of water. And since in L.A. where I'm from, the landlord pays the everyone's water bill most of the time, I'm curious if you've seen a spike in your water bill after you've put in the machines in. Did it make much of a difference? I guess it would depend a lot on how many people live in the unit. If that's the case, perhaps washing machines would be more profitable in smaller units with fewer people living there. 

@Ryan Haase mentioned that he purchased machines off craigslist. My concern would be maintenance. How much do you guys spend maintaining these machines? 

Is it a good idea to buy the Protection Plan from big box stores? 

@Mike Wallace

Looks great!! Question: What is the 79 cent vinyl plank stuff at Home Depot? Do they have something else other than Allure, which I've found for around $1.79 ft2

That's great news. Congrats!

Welcome to BP, Donald! I'm in L.A. Just curious, why specifically SGV? 

The Yelp word map is kind of fun to play with.  It shows the frequency that certain words appear in their reviews, and you can select "hipster" as one of the choices. 

http://www.yelp.com/wordmap/la

For L.A. it shows the usual suspects including Echo Park, Silver Lake, Arts District and others.  And has info for many other cities. 

The map shows one area not talked about as much -- Long Beach along 4th St. -- which I thought was kind of interesting. The prices there on single family homes still seem decent for California standards, like the lower to mid $400's, while still being close to the beach

@Israel Campos Thanks for the thorough response. I think I'll hit up the city and see where it takes me. Also, I hope you make a swift recovery and your marketing plan becomes successful. 

@Patricia Newman That is a well crafted script. I've already saved your suggestions and plan to try them out once I have things set up. You just saved me a lot of time!

With your script, what kind of results have you gotten? (ie: how many cold solicitations did you have to do before you got something that resulted in a close?)