it's pretty soft and breaks down pretty easily. 

Soft to medium grays for wall paint colors look very soothing and contemporary; and wood (like) blinds will offer you the best ROI. 

I also have a soft spot for rehabs as my growing up my family did a decent number of them as a way to "house hack."

If you can get a bank to to give even a soft preapproval ( IE talk with a loan officer and go over your numbers and see if it fits into the general guidelines of something theyd do) or even a specific preaprroval based on ARV and your rehab plans , this option can become alot safer.As always when dealing with hard money, consider holding costs for while you are going to be going through this process.

I tend to go with the medium grade stuff because I like the finish a little better and it comes with easy assembly (dovetail) and soft close features.

Soft screen everyone to find that perfect tenant. 

More sophisticated investors have a very good idea on how to be more competitive by doing things like becoming a listing agent to save money after the rehab, maybe the become a GC so they soft cost of labor, or maybe they just have a crazy good rate for materials.

A pre-qualify will result in a soft pull.

Regardless of where you go, with $40,000 typically would best be used as either soft cost (due diligence) money on a new construction for sale project, or alternatively you can buy a $200,000 property, putting 20% down. 

first point out a similar property thats just came on the market (in the last week or so ), call to tell them,  tell them its similar to their property, and you would like to "share" that information with them, and this information would help hem understand what their property is worth,this is a soft approach, so you need to follow up