Next time, try to make the carpet a little darker so that the contrast with the baseboard is a little bit more.

I'm personally obsessed with slate-like tiles, I feel like the dark contrast to white and grey kitchens are really nice, and they sometimes have enough copper-y tones to look really sharp against wood. 

In contrast, it's doubtful the police, firemen, plumbers, electricians, and sanitation guys are getting laid off. 

Contrast this to the 2% rule (which says that your rental income should be 2% of your home purchase price) or the 50% rule (which says that after dedicating half of your rental income to non-mortgage expenses and then paying your mortgage, you should be left with $100-$200 positive cash flow).  

In contrast an online or out of area HML may base their fund decision purely on numbers and have to concept of the market you're in.  

My products are all bright and sunny and shiny and highly contrasted.

A set of drawings (even unprofessionally drawn) and a finish schedule would be of great help to bring your contractor and your imagination together -- in contrast, if they don't understand or can't read plans, then why bother dealing with them?

The doors and shutters need to be dark to contrast.

(In contrast, unemployment for workers with college degrees never rose much above 3 percent.)  

This might be more than you want to undertake on a rental, but Frog tape or similar _green_ tape is good for a contrasting line between paint colors.