He usually posts her on a bikini, push up bra, breast augmentation  whatever.

But personally, sometimes the best strategy is protecting what you've built rather than pushing for more.

If you see utilities increasing, is there a way that you can push this on to the tenant?

I'd be happy to answer your newbie questions and push you out of your paralyzed state.  

Appreciation allows me to push that off for years.

That data would be sales price after remodel (the true numbers some agents really don't have the experience to be comping the property), the days on market you will experience (this is great info because you want to recycle the money quickly), and resources to sell the place fast not slowly which you do not want this because this could put your holding costs extremely high and push the property to little profit or no profit. 

When you do that, you can get better pricing and leaves less room for error.The best advice is to push forward as quick as possible, fail forward, and always continue to introspect on what you would do differently and then ACTUALLY go back and implement that change (easier to say than do).

Already, it's pushed out-of-town investors to focus on student housing where GC has less of an impact.

YES, but don't push your agent business.

In addition to having cashflow to add value and push equity, I still have had decent appreciation.