An "objective" source of value for your real estate could be Zillow. 

When all the fancy guru crap is long gone and useless, the basic foundation of real estate principles will still apply.Good luck!

student loan debt is highest weighted hit when trying to get a loanif money is no object to you, get a house in west u and youll prob preserve your capital

So if the objective is long-term cashflow I wouldn't write off option 1.

Account Closed just to piggy back on your conversation- we haven't missed a single payment in 5 years, AND I've paid 10's of thousands more than my baseline payments to pay down principle faster.

What is your objective?

Looking for some more objective thoughts on this.

Am I being foolish to try and protect the equity (from appreciation) and should I instead focus on protecting the $160K in hard dollars I've invested in the property to date ($60K down payment, $70K in rehab, $30K mortgage principle)?

Ed, there is not enough information to answer your questions.did you foreclose the right of redemptionhas the judge sign off on your tax sale certificateis the property occupied or vacantdo you have to file an eviction of the existing owner or tenantdo you have enough money to foreclosedo you intend to get a mortgage on itI have done many tax sales deals - my objectives could be ..... 1. sell it now after legal ownership is acquired2. clean it up and sell it for a profit3. keep it to rent4. offer it at public auction - let others bid against others to push the price way up5. sell it back to the owner6. put together a joint venture - raise money to renovate it 

I think you want to be really clear of what is owed versus what the home is worth before you sign up for that.If its still something you want to pursue - there are almost no assumable mortgages anymore, however if he quit claims the property to you and you keep the payments current, it is not likely the lender will do anything to object to this.