If the rest of the house is going to be upgraded, people will look at the kitchen and think, "Hmmm...he skimped here...I wonder where else he skimped that we don't know about?"

Securities issues are not something to skimp on.

Don't try to skimp. 

Don't skimp on electrical or plumbing since those are required to be done by a licensed person, but all the other stuff you can do on your own if you are so inclined.  

There's a lesson everyone who does real estate will learn eventually -- if you skimp on the due diligence, you'll get burned.

You are also that much more likely to nickel and dime your contractors, skimp on or delay upgrades you should make, mismanage a landlord/tenant situation or  ***** about your property manager keeping late fees instead of you.By all means borrow - I would draw the line at leverage because that means that the value of the assets you are controlling are beyond your means, which means if anything goes wrong you will not be in control of the situation.So yes borrow, but my rule of thumb would be to ensure that your monthly repayments could still be comfortably made if you lost half your rental income overnight.

Rip up the wood floor from that room and patch the rest of the wooden floors with that.When done properly (and most likely all the wood was originally installed from the same batch and at same time), you will have magnificent wooden floors.Don't skimp on a refinisher--it will make all the difference!

Do not skimp on roofing work. 

Thinset is where you should not skimp on money. 

The biggest expense on it will be your concrete flatwork, and you want to make sure you dont skimp on it or use some cutrate crew.