+1 for paint / pets / grouting / cleaning / gardening.

We allow pets as a vacancy minimisation exercise rather than trying to get an extra $10/wk

Concentrate on clean and fresh Kitchen, Bathroom, Toilet and getting rid of odours and street appeal in first 30 seconds. Paint, Paint, Paint

Friend of ours just raised her rent from $290 to $350/wk via much needed reno. 4 people, 2 solid w/e’s of labour. That’s extra $3000/yr and in a single year easily recovers the materials and mates rates labour of the reno
We:
Scrubbed, cleaned kitchen wall tiles and walls
We scrubbed, cleaned, scrubbed, cleaned (should have replaced) the oven/stove (4-5 hrs labour)
Cleaned and cleaned the kitchen shelves (still door less)
In the bathroom we patched huge wall cracks and repainted the whole thing in white (from blue). We tile painted the wall tiles from blue to white and fitted a $15 shower curtain. Massive massive impact
Painted the toilet from baby poo mustard to white, white, white (that was worth $20/wk alone)
Patched, plastered cracks and painted all other internal walls to a neutral shade (1/4 Hogsbristle), and ceiling white
Tubes and tubes of gap filler
Repaired doorknobs and hinges on doors
Repaired a sloping and broken kitchen cabinet and kitchen work surface. Removed dirty grubby silicone
Replaced all the all tap washers and many of the spindles (saves expensive plumber call later) and installed water saving washers (keep the receipt) to make sure PM passes water usage to tenant
Replaced broken fibro cement ceiling sheet on back patio
Basic front garden tidy
Washed external front of house only (sides left) and painted neutral with white window frames
Removed rubbish from garage

House also needed new gutters but that didn’t help the rent/wk

cheers