I will make sure this is part of my assessment process when I come across this scenario again.

The insurance company said they would review and if deemed to be bad enough they would send out an adjuster to assess the damage (safe to say they'll need to send someone out ha!).

What is the cities comprehensive plan?

At all my rental properties I carry the comprehensive insurance plus flood insurance. 

Let her know that your offer could be better if you are able to property assess the home, but unless you are able to do that your offer is going to assume nothing is salvageable.

City of Pittsburgh actually has a lower tax millage rate than those areas. http://www.anytimeestimate.com/CALCULATORS/pa-alle...You'll need to run them through a couple scenarios and put the assessed value and the new purchase price into that calculator.

Der Jordan,Thank you very much for the comprehensive answer.I'll check the podcasts.

I do some legwork and find out the actual agent XXXX (who is a victim in my assessment of this clusterXXX) and confirm the property is in contract, I get some additional details, and confirm she is not affiliated with Keller Williams *OR* the "as a courtesy we created an account for you" folks.So- to sum up. 

Hopefully they have experience in that submarket so they can give you an accurate assessment.

I think I have assessed everything I can, obviously the calculator helps.