Enhanced Kitchen Finishes- Granite counters, stainless appliances, better quality appliances, fresh carpet; can enhance rents and quality of tenant.

If you buy mostly off-market you'll get zero commission, so a major factor for you will be if you plan to shop mostly via the MLS (which can be a good strategy especially for SFH where the data tends to be better quality). 

Don't sacrifice quality or start taking shortcuts, that will come back to haunt you every time.

I will chalk up my hesitancy and desire to pinch another penny to regret for not buying in this area 5-10 years ago when quality property was $6,000-$8,000 an acre instead of $25,000 as it is now. 

Quick question on the quality of tenants I can expect in smaller towns - say Sherman or Van Alstyne.

The main quality to look for is familiarity and expertise in real estate.

Everything you mentioned other than windows will bring rental value / speed to you. 

For quality relationships to form, it can take time so I'd recommend digging deep into someones goals and their 'why' when looking to build your team of investors/partners.I'd recommend checking out meetup.com, eventbrite and of course BP Events.

Anything less usually leads to delays, dropping the ball, slips in quality, miscommunication between trades and all sorts of issues.

I'm not sure I want to work with a flipper in the future since the quality of work was so poor and they only performed the minimum work.