I just evicted a tenant and need to fix up a townhouse to rent in the Orlando fl area (Altamonte Springs to be exact). These 3/2 townhouses rent for around $1300 - $1500 in normal times. This one was rented for $1300 when I acquired it a year ago for 100K. It is a decent school district and safe neighborhood. Monthly condo fee is $340 (for pool, etc) so that gives an idea of the type of property/investment.

I have to do something with the kitchen cabinets/countertop. See pictures. I am out of state.

Option 1: My handyman in the area (who I trust) gave me a quote. I imagine I can get the hinges and door knobs cheaper than he found them but even so this is still a lot of money to sink into what will still be an outdated kitchen. The quote was around $1400 to sand and refinish the cabinets and put all new hardware (hinges and knobs) not including hardware. The hardware he quoted was around $400 for knobs and hinges but i know I can find that a lot cheaper than whoever quoted him. He also quoted adding a missing narrow cabinet (on the right side of the stove) for $300 (includes the cabinet). So his total quote was 2K approx and with cheaper hardware maybe it could be $1850 or something. However, this just sort of puts lipstick on a pig. This are the old this flat faced wood cabinets that were built in place.

For the counter/sink replacement that was around another 1k for laminate or 2k for granite if he did the work. Counter must be replaced. It is cracked. So that brings the total up to around 3k for this.

I can't really make a decent kitchen with this small space with off the shelf stuff at home depot, at least not the plywood casing stuff (too many pieces need to be ordered) so I had them do a design with their woodcraft. That design without countertops came to about $6500 after tax not including install and counter tops / sink. My handyman can do the install for about 1K and adding the 1k for laminate would be $8500. Still waiting on how long it would take to get this stuff. Probably 4-6 weeks I'm guessing.

Handyman thinks he can get cabinets cheaper through some local places that orders direct from China but that takes 4-6 weeks.

The advantage to just cleaning up the current cabinets is it saves money and gets the place ready to rent much faster but is a good chunk of change to just keep an old kitchen presentable.

I'm also having to spend a for all new appliances including washer dryer to that is about 3k. If I replace old carpeted flooring that could be 3-5 since it covers about 1000 sq feet too. I could leave the carpet and just clean it if doing the lower end renovation I guess. Then painting is another couple thousand and that has to be done. 2 bathtub refinishes is about 900. HVAC is ancient so at any time that could be 4 or 5K but don't need that now.

The one plus is that Orlando is a fast growing area.

Desperately seeking thoughts on what experienced rental property investors would do in a similar situation.