@Anthony Polossine the first thing I would do is make sure the person that sold you the property, has authority to sell the property

You need a purchase & sale agreement, a title report, a Power of Attorney for authorization to talk to the lender, a payoff amounts, disclosures to the sellers, and escrow.3.

Real estate books are a dime a dozen...one book is hard to pick, but don't pass up the E-Myth Revisited...but get the audio book and play at 2x speed...the author sounds like he could die at any moment...still a good read ;) Good luck! 

Is there a good authority website that allows you to properly estimate appreciation over say, a 5 year period in a specific zip code? 

As long as you trust the site you are using for vetting, I am sure you are making the right moves.Some helpful things I like to think of are:Have them sign an authorization form, which allows you to look up their credit report and do a background check.

I listened to an interesting audio book in the Rich Dad series authored by a CPA.

Bigger Pockets author Chad Carson will be the speaker at the Sept 20th meeting Contact me if you need info on this or other groups in town. 

The most current pay standards for Birmingham are located on the website for the Housing Authority. 

Look at the bottom of Question Q Ahh I missed the part about needing the house to be authorized as a room and boarding house by the county.

Most will ask for authorization to fix anything up to around $250 (your mileage may vary on that number).