I am familiar with Dalton as I sold some larger apartment buildings there with a client many years ago ( they owned hundreds of units in town there) .It was right after the down turn around 2009,2010.

I.E with the kitchen cabinets could I just get new counter tops and cabinet doors without all new cabinets?

He does things right so you don't have to touch it again.I also have an excellent mason, a custom cabinet specialist / handyman, and a couple muscle guys.

So far I have:Built a standard parts list and supplier list: windows, paints, flooring, cabinets, sinks.Established a good primary realtor.Made a standard of what I will do to distinguish my apartment units in the market.Hired a property management to deal with the increased number of lease up's and tenant shake out (note- I have only had 1 tenant move).Started using a documentation system for projects (Trello) and files (Google Drive).Built a solid relationship with a commercial lending arm of a regional bank.Areas to improve: Marketing- I have been MLS primary for my deals focusing on heavy rehab needed C class buildingsWebsite- slacked on totallyAttending network events-  in the 2 years only made it to 4 I think.

The maximum is either 20 or 25% off.Of course, if you are spending in the hundreds of dollar range, you may want to just keep on going with that 10%.

That might take out the whole out of town question.I don't have an answer for you but I'm sure there are a number of blog posts on this topic as well as a few hundred forum posts as well.

I have upgraded the units with things like luxury vinyl flooring, clean surfaces painted with good colors, good but non fancy kitchen cabinets.  

You are looking to spend thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars and there are small things throughout the contract you have to get correct.

Other thing is their is few cabinets in the kitchen....not much storage in the kitchen for a 3/2.....Here in California potential tenants always like to have lots of cabinet space.  

Spend only a few hundred dollars on stamps, envelopes and notepads and handwrite the letters yourself.