And do you do whole house or just living areas/ bath and other places carpet?

And to not spend too much on things that don't matter too much; thinking flooring or at least carpet to a degree don't want to go too cheap on that, exterior things like siding not sure if there is much money to save there, any other areas to save money?

Best thing would have been to remove the carpet.

but don't worry, it's safely locked down.2) Smell-- figure out the cause, is it a horrible smoker,  bad carpet, or mold? 

That includes professional carpet cleaner, minor touch-up/paint.

I bought a house in which the tenant killed himself and the seller had some off-the-street guys come in remove the carpet and paint the floors.

Repairs, repainting, shampoo the carpets, etc. 

From the closing we headed straight to the apartment and started tossing out junk and ripping up carpeting, but not before snapping a few "before" pictures.  

Roaches and other peasants that could creep over to your other tenants, replacing soiled carpets, holes in the sheet rock, litigation......Who know what your set back will be every time a tenant leaves.

I then subtract an assumed $20K for repairs (paint, carpet, seller's lies about repair costs, landscaping, etc.).