I'm 23, recently graduated from Miami University in Oxford, OH with degrees in Psychology and Systems Analysis, and currently work as a technology integration consultant for one of the Big 4.

I think you may even get a nice psychological satisfaction from the improvements you are making to the properties.

And I believe it is MikeOH who made the point that these more complicated methods make it psychologically easier for a person to rationalize a property that is a loser -- and as we've seen here and in countless other threads, that is one thing we don't need!

I have battled the short-term psychology of the irresponsible peer group for a long time.

Don't forget about the psychological aspects of owning the property.

You should spend some time looking through our Investor Psychology Forum - http://forums.biggerpockets.com/viewforum.php?

You might want to check the thru some of the threads in the forum, (Investor Psychology), "What was the most inspiring book you've read?"

How about the whole design psychology stuff?

As for that, I'd dedicate a good amount of time to both, but I would psychologically approach the former as my job/funding source and the latter as investments for the future/retirement. 

They tend to change their tone because psychologically they don't want to do a transaction that is not normal, nor traditional nor standard.