Spending on expensive upgrades is not the answer to improve your tenant base in this type of area.Keep the homes habitable, clean, and safe. 

Visit the property and learn about various renovation stages, gain insights from our experienced investors / speaker, and learn strategies for evaluating deals, managing budgets, and maximizing ROI.What to expect:Property walkthroughsReview before photos and discuss transformation plansDive into real deal numbers—costs, profits, and challengesNetworking with industry prosOpen Q&A session to ask anything about the process

In order to do this you need to have deal flow and you need to know 1) How to recognize a good, profitable deal, 2) How to put together funds quickly to buy the deal before someone else does and in such a way where you are protected and the deal is protected, 3) How to run the project so that you follow the budget and don't overspend or overbuild, 4) How to attract an end buyer or a renter and which documents to use to protect yourself and the buyer, 5) If you are going to keep the property then you need to know how to set up the property from the start to best help you in the refinance later, and 6) You need to know how you are planning on managing the property from the beginning in order to make sure it will be profitable at the end.

That is good but there are fewer folks looking to spend over $1000 a night on a place.This all looks like a problem waiting to happen IMHO.

Of course, you can delegate most of these tasks to employees, but then you should also budget time for employee management, hiring, and training.

I would spend a few bucks on nice ads in local magazines and/or do flyers in areas that are higher income. 

Your clients should focus on properties with significant equity potential and work with experienced contractors to stay within budget and timeline—especially with borrowed funds on the line.Avoiding Bad Deals - Encourage them to work with experienced agents, contractors, or mentors and always run multiple scenarios, including worst-case outcomes, to stress-test their numbers.Reserves - Advise your clients to keep a reserve fund separate from their loan for emergencies, unexpected expenses, or delays.

Any specific suggestions on how to tone down on a budget but still be effective?   

Every 12 months you should budget 1 month of vacancy to turn the unit.

You would need to track everything you spend on the business unit and write those off and anything shared would be times 50%.