diff --git a/test/vm.install b/test/vm.install
index 76402178..def0ffb8 100755
--- a/test/vm.install
+++ b/test/vm.install
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 SRPM="$1"
 
+# always remove older versions of these RPMs if they exist
+# to ensure newly built packages have been installed
+yum -y remove lorax lorax-composer composer-cli
+
 LATEST_REPO="/etc/yum.repos.d/rhel7-rel-eng-latest.repo"
 if [ ! -f "$LATEST_REPO" ]; then
     cat > $LATEST_REPO << __EOF__
@@ -74,7 +78,6 @@ rm -rf build-results
 su builder -c "/usr/bin/mock --no-clean --resultdir build-results --rebuild $SRPM"
 
 packages=$(find build-results -name '*.rpm' -not -name '*.src.rpm')
-rpm -e --verbose $(basename -a ${packages[@]} | sed 's/-[0-9].*.rpm$//') || true
 yum install -y $packages
 
 systemctl enable lorax-composer.socket