Higher quality laminate will increase the cost, but shouldn't increase the install cost. 

Everything else, any motivators and techniques you pick up and employ to increase or 10X your life and productivity are a bonus. 

As the market gets stronger and rates increase, having a property that is renovated, stable and cash flowing might turn out to be a great long term hold for you.

If the deal falls through and IF they did nice work on the property then they have increased the value of the investment for you.

If they are needed, does a 65% increase sound reasonable?

Doing this long distance really increases your risk.

Currently, I have a good credit and we are working to increase his.

The best way to get cash flowing properties in these areas are finding a place that needs serious work, investing that rehab to increase the value, re appraising after the rehab and then pulling out as much cash as you can on the refinance (thus lowering the cash youve put in out of pocket and hopefully giving a good return on your cash)Hope this helps!

We need to increase the availability of affordable housing targeted to those most in need — but this initiative is the wrong approach that will only make the problem worse.” - California NAACP President Alice Huffman

I've read that a Starbucks will increase the value of your property quite a bit, followed by Dunkin' Donuts.