Also, I scroll through the OTA and see hundreds to thousands of bland listings with seriously dated decor and properties.

It is so very taste specific that there aren’t many people who could live with the decor.

The furniture and décor in a house speaks volumes about what type of person lives there, and has a huge impact on what types of people apply to become a tenant.

The property location, configuration, decor and amenities factor into who is going to want to rent it and how much they're willing to pay. 

. - Furniture & Decor  Roughly half of the STR's clients have acquired the past two years have been sold furnished.

People get rid of great stuff when they do a change of decor.

Anyways in Dec or Jan , bathroom pipe burst because they never switched on the heating or power, or shut down water - during the coldest winter Seattle has ever seen.

If it is a brick house, you can cover the exterior hole with decorative brick and no one is the wiser.I also don't care for tile around a tub.

Outside/decorative curtain, no if it still looks clean, since it is not in contact with water. 

I recently dropped a property from my mgmt company that had so much potential but didn't hit that target due to owner not being willing to update and decorate the property to our recommendations.