I suppose if the amount of questions are some quantification of that knowledge, not very is the answer.So, I am going to re-post a story from the HUD archives that a couple title companies and other mortgage examiners have posted.

The house is in Seattle, and I'm in California.Sorry, but you choose not to examine the place yourself. 

When it comes to analyzing areas to invest in I'm curious if there is a popular national website to gather stats like school districts, population, income, jobs etc?

Suffice to say, your point is an obvious issue that deserves examination by a local attorney.Can a business incorporate in any state they want?

Examine the rent you would get from your old place versus the new one after renovations.

Just to throw out some more stats on the Pittsburgh Metro Area market: Forbes rated Pittsburgh, PA as the 6th top city for job growth in 2009, citing healthcare as the largest contributor to the growth.Check out the story:http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/05/cities-jobs-employment-leadership-careers-cx_tw_0105cities_slide_7.html?

If I do find one that is difficult to examine, I move on to the next.

It allows you to manually enter the homes that are your actual competition, and see their stats to adjust your rates off of.

There are a fair number of stats that show the overall real estate market to be overvalued in many respects and I assume that is what he is looking at. 

If you're trying to figure out if there is a "need" in the market take a look at a few simple stats- VACANCY RATES in the segment your interested in (not just "industrial" but more specifically <5,000SF warehouse, 5,000SF-10,000SF of warehouse, 10,000SF-20,000SF of warehouse, etc, etc; the <5,000SF users are dramatically different in their needs than a 50,000SF user), AVERAGE RENT/SF (rate of return on an existing warehouse versus a new build), COST OF NEW CONSTRUCTION/SF (including land acquisition price).