That will go a LONG way and make you stand out. 

Now what was the 1 stand out piece of advise that you learned and would pass on to other first timers?

Contact the successful investors who stand out to you or are doing what you want to be doing, then take them out to lunch and pick their brains. 

One way to stand out from the crowd is to offer a free Home  Seller's Guide on all of your marketing material. 

Its not that I put a ton of upgrades...very basic, but I feel that for the area and price point its sufficient to stand out. 

Make titles searchable, stand out and you'll get more answers. :)

Outdoor improvements would be proportional based on how much is attributed to the personal part of the property and the rental part. 

You can look at it two ways, building of big apartment buildings means that the town is due for growth and will be drawing in a lot of renters and you may be able to charge a good rent, not everyone wants to live in big buildings and would rather rent smaller places but be by everything. the other way to look is that the market will be over saturated with rentals and yours would need to stand out, how do you market it, do you lower rent to draw the people or do you fix it up and heavily advertise it to try and stand out. i think if you invest in those areas you need to upgrade and advertise, appeal the class of people they are trying to draw to the area, may be worth finding out who the developer is and asking them what market they are targeting, if they will share with you that info.

However you must send out 5-7 campaigns in most areas to receive a ideal return on investment and stand out from the competition. 

The duplex in question had great potential and attributes.