IMO if I was in your situation I would fib your wife by saying that it was actually the person's dog that died on the property (and then speak to the neighbor so they would give the same story) I'm not an advocate of lying but in this circumstance I would jusitfy it, because 1) It would give your wife peace of mind (because she does seem awefully afraid of this type of thing without a justifiable rational basis) and 2) Potentially save you from having to move to a different house.

Improvements can help justify increase in value.

I just can't justify putting a property under contact without a exit buyer in place, not fair to the seller and not the way I work.

I believe insurance companies are well justified in excluding them from their coverage, and that landlords are well justified in forbidding them on their property.

When I tried this in other markets agents seemed very rude, perhaps justified?

I also like the idea of selling the place as energy efficient to prospective tenants as a perk to minimize vacancy as opposed to using it to justify higher rents (which I think would just in turn lead to higher vacancy.)

That same homeowner would feel justified to complain and the builder better come out and fix the problem free of charge. 

Or do you think putting in laminate in dry areas would would allow me to rent the places at a higher price to justify the cost of repair/maintenance?  

This makes it easy to email, complaint or justify in court.

The price he suggested was the price he claimed my property was worth and he even had a BPO with a list of properties that justified his inflated price but first, I had to spend $1800.00 on making the property sale ready.