Easy to repair and refinish if necessary.

We refinished the floors, completely redid the kitchen, painted, replaced vanities, toilets, sprayed the tile in the bathrooms with enamel paint, replaced sliding glass doors, HVAC, interior doors, and regrouted and coated the sunroom brick floor, repainted the siding on the exterior, and had some minor landscaping done.

Purchase price: $89,000 Cash invested: $20,000 Sale price: $125,000 Lived in home and fixed it up, updating kitchen, floor coverings, refinished hardwoods, painted trip, landscaping.

-https://thumbs.trulia-cdn.com/pictures/thumbs_5/ps...Kitchen-I wanted to replace the cabinets, but they are real wood, and I have been talked into refinishing them, using the sanding, priming, and painting type of method.

Putting in a new patio door, new kitchen, bath, and refinishing hardwood floors.

Then there's HOAs who are notorious for issuing fines for even just painting or refinishing - yet get away inexplicably for any work they deem necessary on the common areas of a building without even pulling a permit first.Doesn't property tax permanently go up for each improvement/addition most of the time?

You only need one abandoned chihuahua or un neutered cat to pee all over the house and not get cleaned up ASAP to need to refinish the floors or do aggressive odor removal, etc.

Refinish the wood but hire a pro crew to do it.

Cost to refinish and match all the counters might be $800- 1000. 

Sure, you could put some things on the back burners (say, adding central air vs window units or updating wood windows to vinyl or replacing butcher block countertops with granite or at least formica or holding off on refinishing semi-OK hardwoods, etc.).