Cost Effective Rental Renovation: Tips and Strategies

I did a search on the forums here for "cost effective rental renovation." I didn't have much luck, so starting a thread here to crowdsource information for the community.

This post was inspired by the Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott, where he mentions this about carpet: "Higher-density padding can make lower-end carpet feel like upgraded carpet, and pad is considerably cheaperthan carpet; choosing a nice pad can improve the feel of your low-end carpet considerably."

Investors: What strategies have you successfully employed to balance cost and quality in your rentals?

Contractors: What are things investors do that they don't realize are having an impact on cost? What can they do differently to get more bang for the buck?

Property Managers: What are cost effective methods investors should be using to maximize rent?

Looking forward to the discussion!