congrats on your journey. in my experience i have refinished hw floors and installed thousands and thousands of square feet of laminate floors. the issue i have found with laminate floors is if they ever require a repair down the road it is unlikely you will be able to get an exact match for the floor you installed  X years ago. hardwood floors can be refinished several times and look great when done right. you assumption on carpet is pretty accurate. we tend to install a mid-grade carpet (not the cheapest carpet available)  and as long as tenant did not totally trash it we have been able to get it cleaned and in some cases even dyed it a different color if we could not get the stains out but yes we replace a lot of carpet after tenants leave. 

Since you're in the market for an owner occupied home, why not make it an investment grade home as well?

To be more specific, I have an early 90s home in Fairfield with standard builder grade materials throughout for that era (solid oak cabinets, linoleum floors, gold accent hardware in bathrooms, tile counters, etc.)

Typically the businesses that pay the most for the corner are a pharmacy ( CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid ), gas stations ( Race Trac, Quick Trip ) , banks ( nationals pay a premium for a great location ), restaurants  sometimes will want the corner but often they do not want to pay corner money and want to be down just a few spots and then get off traffic with easements from the corner property and a center behind them etc.

I am just about to wrap up my first year of buy/hold investing, and I have seven doors in this market.I imagine there are some genius-grade new investors who can get everything running right out of the gate, and for whom out-of-state investing would be easy.

I started getting my first calls yesterday and have talked to about 8 people so far, it's getting easier already remembering/knowing what i need to ask people, I would give myself a B grade based on my newbie status.  

There might be re-grading that has to be done on the exterior and digging out the outside and sealing as well as the inside.If the weeping system is broken or outdated it would need replacing.

The landlord feels that they should not be changed but if they were to be changed, it would cost $400 for the faucets (commercial grade) + labor to drill new holes and switch water lines for a total of $1500.

They seem to work very well and the newer ones are grade 1 security (and seem sturdy) vs the key-control which advertize as grade 2. 

Overall square foot, 1 or 2 story, brick, siding, stucco, peer and beam or slab foundation, level of interior upgrades (i.e. contractor grade, custom, etc.)