-------In 2013, my wife and I purchased a 1974 2-story "fixer" in Clovis, NM via a no-money down VA loan, which we poured our blood, sweat, and tears into for 3 years: refinishing the exterior, installing hardwood floors, upgrading countertops, repainting all the walls and trim, retiling showers, blowing out walls, replacing light fixtures, etc..

For me those amenities include washer & dryer inside the unit (W/D supplied by landlord), SS appliances, granite or quartz counter tops, open floor plans, typically off street parking (not always, but it is a goal), quality hard surface flooring (hardwood or tile), kitchen island with seating or breakfast bar, private bedrooms (alot of older houses in my area are shotgun style houses, where one must walk thru bedrooms to get to other bedrooms), etc.  

It currently has hardwoods but they’re **** and thin and I don’t want to refinish them a lot of pieces are chipped and missing etc… the kitchens already have tile and I’m doing porcelain tile in the bathrooms.

One other comment - if you have carpet, tear it out and put in tile or pwood (laminate hardwoods). 

I have now switched to hardwood flooring at most of my properties but want to get thoughts on which one is better?

Houses were well made back then, custom, in fact, every board in the house was cut to fit and I'm not talking 2-4s, I'm talking walnut and oak 2x6s with hardwoods throughout of normal size.

Pulling permits, how to frame, hanging cabinets, basic plumbing and electrical, sheet rock, installing hardwoods, carpentry you name it.

Red carpeting throughout, which when removed, revealed impeccable hardwoods.

Rehab on this house included, patching the roof, replacing and tiling the bathroom, sanding, staining and sealing hardwood floors, reframing and drywalling a cutout arch between kitchen and dinning room, fixing some electrical, painting, Rescreening a porch, building a fence, planted walls and ceiling and installing a new kitchen, installing French drain, added insulation and probably more that I can’t even remember.

. $ 7500Paint all walls and ceilings throughout $2500Keep all natural wood trim and doorsRefinish hard wood floors $2000Install new hot water tank $1800Paint all basement walls and floors $800Scrape all soffit, handrails and floors around all porches. $2500Install all missing gutters throughout $1200 2nd floor Upgrade all painting, $2500 Remove all old Ceramic tile in kitchen $600Install new LVP throughout $4000Rehab Budgets including Install: $30kWhere some of my hesitation lies is the ability to sale at the projected ARV.