It's not always the best tactic to buy the most expensive products; for example, I never buy  pricey paint as in all my years as an investor/landlord I have never cleaned a wall in preparation for a new tenant and find if I stick to one color for all my properties it doesn't take that long to just put on a fresh coat of paint.

ADVERTISING YOUR RENTAL UNIT Once the rental unit is ready to show, meaning the unit has been freshly painted, the repairs all done, the carpeting cleaned and everything shining, it’s time to advertise.

Some other benefits for installing attic insulation: Even if you will not get the payback on your utility bills while living at the residence, it is something that can be advertised to your future tenants - "we have freshly installed attic insulation which has lowered our gas bill by 25%." 

There's a BC box house for sale right now for $380K, (mls# 429756) a block from a freshly renovated split level for just under $600K (mls# 432035).

As they move out, I plan to renovate each unit with vinyl plan tile, fresh paint and update bathrooms and kitchens.  

Then in between tenants you could apply a fresh coat of finish if needed.

I was skimming through and seeing a lot of solid advice above.As someone who is still fairly fresh to rentals, going into my 2nd year and 2nd 4-unit, I'm happy to share something that has worked REALLY well for me, in weeding out a large amount of low-quality renters.I started out by just posting a listing and doing showings and apps as the calls/emails came in... and like the trouble you're having... you can often get a lot of under-qualified applicants coming though.Something I stumbled into, and others do some variation of this, it's not reinventing the wheel or anything... but for me, it's helped A LOT.When I make the post/listing now, I will usually now add somewhere that the space is available on  "x date" for showing (and make that date 3-4 etc days out).

Is he able to dump that $50k or any large portions of into that fresh new solo 401k?

The snow definitely motivates more people to come up, but in my experience (not to say it won't change) but there are always people looking to come up for a ski vacation, even if there isn't "fresh pow".

The gravel was level and fresh.