You will absolutely pay more in Aug/Jan then spring/fall.I generally agree that you don't fix what isn't broken however, the ages of those units you mention sound way beyond the average life span. 

I would love to hear from anyone who has taken this more upgrade (more costly) version!

All during the rehab the apartment was broken into and the ceiling tiles popped to see if there was still a stash up there.

The keys for this scenario to be profitable are the homes have to be in good locations and renovated/upgraded properly, a good property manager, and a good short term rental marketer.

Needs upgrades to kitchen.

They will usually draft a term sheet, with all of their costs broken down, interest rate, loan duration etc.From this you can plug and chug into either a BP calculator or property analysis report of your choosing and see if the numbers fit.

That way they feel like they are getting an upgrade but you were going to do it anyway.  

We might have to upgrade the kitchen because it looks dated.

If you can do some upgrades to the units, increase rents with those kinds of "option packages" I was discussing, as well as get your property in a growing community.... in a few years you can increase the value of your property a great deal, use the BRRRR method and repeat. 

On top of all these they are reporting us to city for broken kitchen tile bathroom tile and cabinets.