I'd put a nice carpet runner up the treads, it will protect the treads and should be fairly cheap; pick a good wearing but modern pattern/color for the carpet.

One idea we have,  is to build out used shipping containers into nice modern living spaces for college students, connecting 2 or 3 together, with one being a shared living room space and kitchen and the other two would be housing/sleeping units.

There are clear landlord-tenant laws that control the situation at hand.The fact that people lived for thousands of years without modern amenities is irrelevant and also not in line with modern landlord-tenant laws.Also Nathan makes big assumptions about the rental value at $2000/month and that the stove is electric rather than gas.With all that said: I don't think you need to rush to calling attorneys, I do think that if the situation is resolved in a day or two from when she lost gas, it's ok to just prorate her rent.

They might have done a repair and had to use a modern brick that looks different.

Quality furnishings and a decent/modern entertainment set up as you mentioned with high speed internet for streaming movies (night time or for rainy days) makes for an enjoyable experience, and maybe a game system.

That and a fresh coat of paint can change a house from a crappy outdated house into a modern home.

The couple you speak of may have done the same, so anyone with experience 20+ years ago before the modern spike in prices is playing a different game than today, may be out of touch, or may be rich and again can afford to play a different ballgame.

Trying to digitize admin, do some modernization but overall it's an old building.

With modern day tech, there's really no reason for landlords to have to pay a prop manager to simply collect rents.I think the only reason you should have a property manager in place is if you need constant repairs or have a tenant issue you don't wanna deal with such as an eviction or something along those lines.

My open floor plan house with somewhat modern features, hasn’t been more then two weeks vacant in five years.I noticed when looking at rentals, almost all needed paint, flooring, general cleaning and fences repaired.