Replacing the carpets is an expectation for almost every unit we rent even when the carpets were brand new when the tenant moved in and even when the tenant was in the apartment for only one year.Personally, I hate carpets with a passion and when you consider the crap that carpets collect they should be against the law to rent an apartment with carpets more than one year old that contain who knows what when dogs clean their butts by dragging across carpets, animals urinate and poop on them, people spill, walk on them with poop on their shoes and who knows what kind of crazy sex people had on the carpets.Take a white bedsheet, put it on your floor where you walk into your home and look at what is on that bedsheet within just a couple hours.

This is not to say they'll do the job well, only that screwing the job up won't endanger anyone or the house; the worst that happens is the job looks like crap. 

I believe the key is to have the ability to sniff out the crap BEFORE you spend any money.

Painted floors look like crap after beds and sofas and Big Wheels slide around on them for six months.

Not all homes have foundation issues, but many do and I think you either have to budget for it and know repair will happen, or you do everything you can to minimize the risks.Don't let anyone sell you on "lifetime" warranties...or other crap about foundation repair.   

Don't be short-sighted on the short-term cash flow OOS crap.

And, while I am happy to help out, no amount of my advice is going to do you any good if you don't get your crap figured out first.By *stuff* I mean your finances, your goals, your team and your strategy for real estate investing.

That makes appraisals difficult and even more of a crap shoot than normal.

Also, end buyers could see what can be done to a boarded up, run down piece of crap and get excited. 

I have never once been bothered about random crap, except via email.