Whittle down the list based on drive by's and stats.2. 

Chandler and Realtytrac publish USA wide stats on yield but the main investor markets are well talked about here also!

Make sure you have an inspection clause written into your contract and have a certified inspector examine it.  

Also, another way to do this with pictures is always take a picture of the front of the house as your first picture for the house with the address showing.Take your notes on one piece of paper per property with the address of the property on the paper at a minimum and hopefully the picture of the front of the property and some stats.

In my state, CA, there are different level of powers, best evident by examining a document alternatively called probate Letters Testamentary (if subject the decedent's will) or Letters of Administration (intestate - no will).

The school district isn't great, and I would check the crime stats near the house if I were you. 

What I do is enter the address on zillow so I know where it's located, set the range for square footage, year built, bedrooms and bathrooms, that are all close to the stats of the subject property and then say "sold in the last. 6 months".

(And owners are the ones with the vested interest to make sure of those 2 things.)As a renter: I'd never agree to pay the owner a non-refundable fee like this that was outside the owner's direct control AND have to wait 30days, unless I couldn't find housing ANYwhere else.You as an owner going forward should examine whether you like the criteria used by HOAs to determine who is/isn't acceptable as a renter....they could put You as an owner within this HOA at risk for their possibly discriminatory decision.

As for the neighborhoods, if your looking for actual stats on local areas check out city-data.com.

I'm going to be taking the state licensing exam in the next few weeks and am just looking for input.