Overall, I go middle of the road. As nfllifer said, depends on the project. I find it helps to keep a mental list of what will probably need replaced at any given property in the near future, if I come across a whopping good bargain while at HD or Lowe's, I'll grab that bargain. Light fixtures (interior and exterior), I get very inexpensive but nice looking (my biggest compliment I get from applicants is the house doesn't look like a rental ;) Two of the three houses have nearly all original hardwood throughout, but in baths/kitchens we have vinyl. Bathtub area walls are tiled. I put a tub surround in one house several years ago, never again. It looks terrible already. A plain white tile would have cost about the same and still be in great shape. Replaced a faucet early on in this job with a cheapie that looked nice and will never do that again, it sprang more leaks, after 3rd trip over DH bought a mid-line price Delta, no more troubles. Remember time is $$ too, so ask yourself if it's something you're going to be running over and repairing a lot and if a bit of an upgrade would require less repairs. Furnaces I replaced all with Trane, because weekend/night service calls can be astronomical ($90 just to show up). When I added up the cost of the service calls on the old ones, it was whopping. Outside AC unit I just tried a Goodman, it's only been in one year, but I saved several hundred, we'll see how it performs. If well, I will use that brand again. Paint, I go with Glidden or Pittsburgh mid-line. Repaint too much to pay $30/gal. Two houses have vinyl siding (done before I took over mgmt) so that helps, very low maintenance. But one house has white aluminum that still is sound, so we're leaving it. But one particularly destructive tenant banged it with his car door on several occasions, and after he moved neighbors told me his kids would stand outside and wail on that section of siding with sticks. I painted those spots with matching paint because it was silver siding showing through. (Was never so glad to get a tenant out, that bunch was so destructive.) Entry doors (which I seem to replace a disproportionately high number of times) are basic steel, half moon window, about $150. Storm doors, inexpensive. All 3 houses have electric garage door openers now. The 3rd house we didn't have one till last year (tenant didn't use garage for vehicles but as workshop with tools). Some idiots tried to break in and bent the overhead door panels trying to lift it, so we installed an electric opener and braced the panels with steel brackets on the interior side, so now the door won't budge if anyone yanks on it. (The 'burglars' did come back again, but didn't get in.) Counter tops are laminate. (I'm ratting through the list mentally, we completely overhauled one house while vacant several years ago, and another tenant is helping with labor on the place he's in, so I'm giving him a cut on the rent. That's working out well.) It's tricky, because you don't want to sink top of the line into everything, or it will take forever to recoup the costs and you truly don't know how people live till you get them in the house. An ideal candidate on paper can be one who has a nasty temper when imbibing too much and punches holes in the walls or kicks dents in the door because he can't find his keys. It's a real pain replacing things after you've worked so hard to make it look nice.(With exception of 'involved' electric , plumbing and HVAC, we do as much of the labor as we can ourselves, so save $$.) And we don't provide appliances (again, houses not apartments). It's never been a hindrance in renting. We stopped because of a) damage or b) appliances getting moved along with their belongings when they bolted mid-lease, middle of the night. What type of work are you thinking of doing?

Considering that home values are in decline at an average of 1/10th to 1 full percent per month depending on where your are, I wouldn't consider that a good way to decide what your budget should be. A better way to avoid over improving is to compare the upgrades you want to do with the current trends of your neighborhood. If you live in an older neighorhood with more modest homes, you may want to go with a less expense asthetic and avoid really high end materials. If you live in a more upscale neighborhood, it would be wise to only consider a higher end look.

My master bath used to be 4'x8'. I demo'd two bathrooms that were back to back and stole 1.5' from the other to make it 5.5'x8'. >I would like to know from others who renovated a small master bathroom from an older home if you were able to "find" space and make it appear bigger, gain space by using small vanities, etc. Our toilet is in a bump out so that the door--on one of the short ends--can open. This was original to the house. Now, it's just a shallower bump-out, 1' instead of 1.5'. We're using the full depth of that 1' for a wall cabinet, which will be 48" tall x 28" wide. This gives us a place for the humidifier, my box 'o Ace bandages/splints/etc, the cleaning bucket, and all the linens for that bath. Our medicine cabinet will be recessed. It back up to another medicine cab, which must have a light above, so it has sconces. There is a 10.5" gap between the door frame and the wall. We found a 10" deep cab that we're filling back there. Our vanity is actually a full 36". Part of it is 21" deep, and part is 18". We found a brand that looks nice but packs a huge amount of storage into the space. To put in the wall cab, we had to replace the toe-kick heater with a towel warmer, due to space constraints. Our colors will help open the space. The 66" tub will have frameless sliding doors. The walls and floors will be patterns of white with a light gray grout. There will be tile wainscotting to 40" in patterns of white, and the ceiling and substantial crown molding will be white. The walls will be a medium blue-green, but so little will be visible that it'll function as just an accent color. We can't steal space from the walls except for the medicine cabinet because it backs onto an outer wall. If it weren't for that, our 10" cabinet would be 14" deep, inset into the wall. With an 18" vanity, you'll have plenty of room to feel comfortable, even though 21" is murderous. At 4' depth, our 17" sink was bad, but an extra 6" would have made it okay. Our hall bathroom is now 8'x5.5', with a bite out of it where the toilet is for the master bath's toilet to have room with a swinging door. We stole space in that bathroom outrageously! A cabinet above the toilet, which is 8" deep, is recessed 4" into the wall (3.5" stud plus wallboard). I made two other in-wall cabinets, each about 14"x12", interior. One will be hidden behind a picture frame, so only one will be noticeable. I also but a HUGE medicine cabinet above the vanity, which is only 28" wide but packs in 6 drawers and even a shelf in the plumbing space--and looks nice, too. We couldn't recess that cabinet because the one backing it in the master bath is recessed. The lower in-wall cabinet will hold the first aid kit, while the upper one will hold meds that we use but not regularly--cold meds, etc. The medicine cabinet will hold all daily use things that don't fit in the drawers--even the kids' toothbrushes and tooth-brushing cups aren't going on the counter, which will have just the bathroom clock and the soap, and that's it. On the back of the toilet bowl is a kleenex box holder. In the tub area, I don't use regular shampoo bottles but travel-sided ones with really small openings to make it easier to get just a little shampoo or conditioner, even, and the toys are in a cute plastic frog toys scoop on the wall. Clear glass shower doors--when they arrive--will also help keep it open. I can't emphasize enough the importance of not having stuff sitting out to making a space look larger. Nothing makes a room feel small like a lot of stuff just cluttered around. The mud will only be in the shower. The rest will be sheetrock--the size of the room you have is what you get! In your case, if you REALLY can't move any walls (I'd want a tub in there!!!), I'd indulge in some creative thinking. Your bathroom is 4.5x9' total, which REALLY isn't horrifically small. (Remember that mine was 4x8....) I'd start with the shower. I'd stay in the same footprint but do a Kerdi shower so the threshold could be SUPER narrow--just 2". That gives you a good 2" of apparent interior space in the shower, plus likely another .5" of width without the mud base. Recessed niches are a MUST. Too big is better than too small! I'd get a frameless shower door--almost goes without saying in this setting. I'd do wainscotting to 40", continuing over the top edge of the vanity--this is a kind of "special effect," because unless you paint the upper part of the wall a dark color, it tricks the eye into believing there's more space. Continuing just those 4" behind the vanity makes a big difference, here. For the flooring, I'd do either a small mosaic OR 12x12" or larger, and the 12x12" should be on the diagonal. A "rug" effect actually makes a small room seem larger if the rug part has diagonal lines and the border is small. For the ceiling, crown molding make it seem higher as long as the molding and the ceiling are both white. Painting the ceiling any color but white lowers it in comparison to white. Use hooks rather than rods. They make the space seem bigger and stick out less. I designate a minimum of two hooks per person--one for a towel, one for a robe. The back of the door is a good place to hang things. Use art--and use it strategically. A properly-sized picture can make a space seem larger, and you can use it to hide another recessed medicine cabinet. With a .5"-deep frame, you can have 4.5" shelves. Extra TP, first aid stuff, and irregularly used meds can be stored there. Recess the medicine cabinet, if you possibly can, and make the mirror as WIDE as possible for maximum reflection. I'd commission a custom vanity for the space, and I'd use an undermount sink or would install a square vessel sink in an apron-front manner, like this: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Kraus-White-Rectangular-Ceramic-Vessel-Sink/3250161/product.html You have 42" of space, which is plenty for quite a nice amount of drawers plus a good-sized sink. If you used the sink above, you'd have, with a frameless design, 10.5" for drawers on either side. Make the cabinet kitchen counter height and have two shallow drawers and a deep drawer, and you can still have 8" of open space at the bottom. Even a bun-foot design has less visual weight than going all the way to the floor. Under the sink, add a shelf directly under the plumbing to make a shallow extra "landing" for a small container of things. The one thing, in my bathrooms, that I want space for and don't have is dirty clothes. But as far as everything else, I have MORE storage than I know what to do with! I have space for a cleaning bucket in each bathroom, for all our meds, for my makeup (and plenty of space for kid makeup, when the time comes), even for the Drano, for linens in my bathroom, for tons of bulk storage (extra soap, extra lotion, extra hair products, etc.). We have so much space that the counters can be basically bare. AND far from looking crowded, our hall bath strikes people as much larger than its square footage.

This is really hard. At least you have some choices. I personally do not mind NOT having a toilet room. (I have one now, but not in the last house). If you can fit one in, it may appeal to a few more people. ( When we sold, we had 3 people wanting our home and it had no toilet room). Our tub sat under two corner windows with a wonderful view. So if you would rather a big shower than a tub, make sure you get the shower you want. I like Mongot's 2nd option, but would leave out the linen cab next to it. Hang your towels and add a small bench there. Supposedly, the door on the toilet room should swing out, but the one on house that we own now does not. If you leave it closed all the time, it does not matter. If you like it open, it will block your window. Also I noticed that on some of your drawings, you have lost 6 inches of your 9 foot 6 inch length. That space would make your shower much larger. Of your drawings, option B appeals most to me. Option A closes up your space and C wastes too much space. If your shower can be enlarged to 42 in or 48 in by about 5 feet, that would be really nice. I added a couple of other ideas. I personally like two vanities better than one. The cost should be similar if the total size is the same. Option A1 cuts back on vanity size, but you get a linen and toilet room. A2 has 2 vanities. I still like stand alone vanities for the style. Option 3 gives you more vanity space on one wall, but I don't know if an angled door is the best option. I'd probably do drawers on the end of the long vanity by the window. More light.