They have a monthly meet up.

Two identical homes located next to each other would come up with the same value, even though House #1 was just renovated to a very high standard and House #2 hadn't ever been renovated since it was built in 1949.I always tried for an identical (or nearly so) beds, baths, sq ft of living area, garage and acres. 

You can also rack up a massive degree of fines.  

.- If I pay property taxes online (let's say with a credit card), will my name show up as the payor or will the trust/trustee's? 

After extensive clean up and rehab these two rentals generates $1,700 per month.

Appreciation is very much possible, but my question to that is when do the markets reach their peak and prices start to soften up a bit. 

There have also been a handful of other properties where we we would have put offers in but were too slow, even though we were viewing the property within 3 days of it showing up on MLS. 

Just a heads-up: with the way the insurance market has been here over the past couple of years, this is accurate as of today, but things could look very different (for better or worse) in 6+ months.

I was following your thread up until the moment you mentioned commission split with buyers and sellers agent.

Those rent crept up to about $1300 over the years.