And the HOA is real fussy about what color you can paint the front door, decorations you can hang during the holidays.

Where your cousin might be rooting for you to get the property - and might put on those rose colored glasses - a home inspector has ice water in his veins.His motivation is to not miss something that's going to get him sued. 

Bathroom, if not hideous 70s colors just regrout and put nice vanity Kitchen, paint cabinets, butcher block top, new handles This list is mostly what I do for rentals and I usually spend well under 10k and they look great.

Are certain types, colors, wordings, better than others? 

That was important to me since I have used same color and design since June on some repeat mailing.

im a fan of tile flooring as its nearly impervious and easily fixed if keep a few boxes of tile and pick a grout color the home centers offer in small quantities.

Because the broker's pro forma will be the rose-colored glasses, everything works great, best possible version of the numbers.

They also use things like color psychology, catchy sales copy and keyword rich text placed with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind.

Do you still choose every item (cabinets, colors, vanities, fixtures, etc) or does the GC choose this?

What color and width (3, 4 or 5 inches) are good and attract buyers?