Some of my thoughts regarding the survey as it pertains to San Diego: 1) our best purchase ever was in Sept 1999 when we were last in the better rent than buy category 2) the cash flow in San Diego has always ranged between poor and ok.  

To make that worthwhile you need your monthly rent to be $750-$1000/month.That's where the rent survey comes in. 

At this point you would change the locks, survey the property for damages and work to be done for rent ready.

After all that is complete, then it makes sense to spend money on the inspections, surveys, contractor bids, etc.

Finally, use CBRE's 'Multifamily Cap Rate Survey First Half 2018' report to determine what cap rate stabilized properties of similar class are trading for in your area.

My background is in predevelopment, I have over 8+ years experience in permitting (residential), surveying (platting),  some commercial real estate, marketing and I'm also a real estate photographer, so I'm very knowledgable in those areas and wear many hats, but I'm clueless when it comes to the areas that follow after development.

You would need a rental survey and copy of a lease.

A survey is a couple hundred bucks, just get a survey

You can beat the Chinese drum all you like but even the BC government's survey proved (the survey that was used to put in draconian investment laws which resulted in the market slowing down) that "Chinese" buyers are less than 10% of the entire volume traded - in BC!

Here in Maricopa County, they do an aerial survey of the county every year.