Fair warning: none of the areas you mention are going to come close to cash flowing when buying turnkey property.

One rental house automation I will add is "if it's between sunset and sunrise and the driveway motion sensor goes off, turn on the stairway, main door, and under house lights, then turn them off 10 minutes later". 

Using other people's money is a tremendous responsibility that should not be taken lightly. 

Whats interesting is last year i remember Ray Dalio had warned about a potential recession.

Just the regular maintenance, etc.Problems were minimal at first, just the usual you got to wait 3 weeks for them to inspect the place, and if they find one thing wrong like a cracked light switch plate you are not allowed to fix it even though you are standing right there next to the inspector. 

In order to stay competitive in the market, would one recommend investing their money into making the property look more appealing with new appliances, light fixtures ect or work with what you have?

I like the light fix and flips because you can get in and out pretty quickly and still make a healthy profit.

They'll probably only be tapping into the garage light fitting anyway.

Hey Alex,Fair Warning. 

While I've done light to medium rehabs on my long term rentals, this is a pretty heavy rehab for a BRRRR project.