Kitchen cabinet/countertop upgrade for B class rental

[Jessica Franco]

Hi there

We’re looking for some advice on upgrading our 90’s kitchen and bathrooms. We will be doing the work ourselves, we plan on renting it out when we move out later this year. We already got rid of the wallpaper and painted the walls, my husband got rid of the green laminate floors and installed new flooring, we have also found an awesome vendor who organized brand new stainless steel appliances for us at an awesome price, we are busy replacing the white appliances as they cave in on us. There is already a massive improvement, however, the kitchen could still use some work. (I've uploaded pictures of the progress so far)

We plan on painting the cabinets as they are still in good condition, we just don’t like the orange/golden oak look, will also be adding hardware and backsplash that was gifted to us. Any tips on prepping and painting cabinets for rentals? Is white risky to use in a rental?

The current countertops are green, like moldy cheese green! They are also chipped and have cuts (I’m pretty sure no cutting boards were ever used) Point of the story, they gotta go. What would you recommend replacing them with? We don’t want to go with the cheapest option as we plan on holding this rental for a good while, at the same time it’s a rental in B class so not sure about going high end. Any advice would be appreciated. 

[Terrell Garren]

BTW, I've found granite tops to be only marginally more expensive than laminate.  When you show a class B/C, the female's eyes will say 'you had me at granite'.