If you are holding for 5 to 10 years or longer what you put in for resale even though it may be nice will be outdated by the time you go for retail sale.In that case you will need to redo anyways before putting on the market for retail sale so you don't want to spend a bunch of money now.The other item to factor is what do other rentals in the similar rent range offer as far as finishes??

Forums are definitely not outdated, only outdated forums are outdated!

Due to our rapidly approaching move-out date, we are going to keep the house on the market for 1 month, if it does not sell for our desired price, we are going to rent it out.

In my opinion I think there is a niche that most investors are missing in so cal and that's the 500k-1m market there are a ton of out dated properties and most owner occ buyers I work with in this range want them already updated, willing to pay more and have the ability to pay over appraised value too.

Most of the books you want are outdated because they talk about how it was during the housing boom or they are motivational, hype you up, get up and do it types with no clear instruction on how to execute.

Long answer: This is outdated. 

So how bout small  Multi family ( duplex’s or triplexs)  does anyone factor in the rental value of unit to determine a price to purchase or sell.. for example  let’s say you inherit tenants with an out dated at apartment  30% below market rent value.. are you considering that factor into the value of the property when negotiating a price point with the seller…we know realtors would tell you can raise the rent in the future… but for me am thinking the actuals now are below value and I will obtain a loss  in the beginning of the purchase…anyone has experience similar situation.. honored to hear your input 

I am thinking that with 60k (higher end of estimate) of work the home would be worth 480-500k in the Summer.My question is, is the 70 percent rule outdated?

The other thing is the house was built in 1926 with very out dated kitchen & baths.

What is lacking is the "for sale" data, which is often outdated.