I'm an out of state investor, and after receiving quotes, I decided to fly out to Indy and was able to find that some of the work they proposed was bogus (wanting to change a perfectly new carpet with hardwood for instance).

I collect an extra months security deposit and put in the lease that the tenant is responsible for having the carpets professionally shampooed and cleaned upon move out and specifically responsible for any damage to hardwood flooring due to scratches, nail marks, stains, etc...  

I found only few little points to improve property: changing hardwood floor in three rooms (existing is in very good condition, however I have few hundred sq-ft of beautiful walnut hardwood flooring from friend :) and this will add to character of the house, adding driveway for garage on back (there is driveway for 4 cars on front), enlarging master bedroom closet, and adding doors for outside from laundry room.

No granite and hardwood required.

replace flooring throughout with engineered hardwood, re-do bath and kitchen. 

.- If you have good quality hardwoods, try to keep them.

We had hardwood in most of our previous house but had the kitchen and family room done with wood looking tile and the 4 little guys stayed there until bedtime. 

In my house I use more carpet and hardwood/engineered hardwood.

I've always wanted to get into hardwoods and even considered it for the 30 acre parcel I've got, but I'm not investing on that sort of timeline yet and this climate is also more suited to lesser known hardwoods without the same value as exotic hardwoods so I figure the return wouldn't be there versus a more hands-on development strategy especially when I've never tried to setup and manage hardwood land myself.

Home had hardwood floors and granite kitchen counter tops the previous owner added, intending to live there as a retired building inspector and he was willing to owner finance it to me with 0% down so I took the deal.