The biggest changes were simply making the place new buy re-painting in neutral colors, replacing some very bold colors they had before; such as the dark red dining room.

Tear out the old rock.

Any large city / metro-plex is going to have lot's of regulations and red-tape, that's just the reality of running a city of such size.

last house I closed for instance we put a Jacuzzi tub in so you need a door to get to the motor we left a note on the stud and sure enough sheet rockers rocked right over it.. buyer comes in and thinks we dont know what we are doing LOL..

I know many buyers will go with the flow and not object, but I'm especially curious about the experienced investors and people who aren't afraid to rock the boat to save some money.

RoundUp and pre-emergent weed blockers/killers, and landscape fabric under crushed stone or river rock will be your friends for the landscaping work.Trash requires a bit more info.

@Scott Trench Not to throw rocks, but you did ask for an example that we have seen a lot of lately.https://www.biggerpockets.com/posts/user/reginab52?

We have properties in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Beaumont.

They are wanting to move ASAP, which from my research is a red flag.

I was under the impression from working with a local LLC that uses private money loans from individuals to fund rehabbing projects who was recommended that nothing special was necessary, and the attorney who ran this through is fairly experienced, and though he said there are "a lot of moving parts" in this deal, he didn't red flag anything.So Curt (rehabber) owns a house outright.