You can of course augment your chances of success there by exhibiting to them that you are well-read (but not pretentiously so).

Other then that you can buy into certain repair estimators and slowly augment it as you work to make it more and more tight. 

Could you please augment your answer, just to understand why yes or no?

Would having the carpets professionally cleaned augment the situation in a more cost-effective manner?

Not only would it increase my salary, even starting out, but I think it could provide for a critical eye in REI, to really evaluate what needs to happen to a property, what it's worth, and in general augment my ability to be a buy and hold investor.I am curious just how much property management itself would help my cashflow.

Instead, I will augment my earnings until the stable cashflow stream, meets/exceeds it.

I have found property management is a great way to make a stable income, as well as give you the "inside-scoop" with investors, etc...great for building and augmenting a brokerage business.

I am 4-5 years from retirement and want to augment my retirement income.

@Bradley Benski@Chris Kennedy  These examples make it clear that a little bit of fixing up can really augment a buy and hold (or at very least "hold for awhile") strategy.

The purpose for my real estate investments is to augment a pension and retirement plan/portfolio, which is robust, but how much is too much, right?