I owned my own business Cleaning Carpet and Commercial Offices and Schools for 25 years and always thought I could do much better in Real Estate.

Carpet over it.

Some of it is quite specific to the area the writer invests in, but a lot of the ideas are applicable to lower class properties, and get you thinking about things differently (at least for me).We have started pulling out carpet and replacing with laminate or vinyl planks.  

Sometimes the surprises are under the carpet...There was a 4" thick concrete slab over that hole that Hubby had to bust up with a sledge.

-Quartz instead of granite-Vinyl plank flooring over carpet-Stained concrete in main living areas/1st floors-5/8 drywall over 1/2 drywallIn addition to these changes I'm looking at keeping costs reasonable so I'm not looking at building iron fortresses!

New counters, carpet flooring, paint misc. you might be in for 20K.   

The upstairs is a gut job, new drywall, carpet, and bathroom.

Replacing carpet doesn't count as a renovation.

If you're lucky, there's not too much damage to the house, but you will end up painting and replacing the carpet.    

In actuality, we had the unit ready in 3 days (clean out, dry out, paint, carpet, new stove).