Another thing that you want to do is, if there is a Management Company in place call them and try to ascertain if there is any Deferred Maintenance, the current state of the Property’s Condition, and what are the current rents being charged.

There is always some "noise in the measurements" (as neither asking price, appraisal nor actual selling price is equal to that "real" market value in a sense).Anyway, slight digression :DSeverin, I understand what you mean and I think you are spot on, but the figure you want to find out, the intrinsic value of a property, which could be the real estate equivalent to the "book value" of a company (provided it is accurate, and the financial statements filed are accurate) is very hard to ascertain, as it depends on a number of variables, and also on buyer expectations that are subjective:- The comparable properties that are for sale on the market at a certain moment (the "rival" properties also for sale) and their condition.

I think what you want is some inside off market deals with a ton of equity, agents with the ability to ascertain equity and owner motivation have a long list of folks who'll make offers to hijack a profit.

This is an issue and the reason many HUD sales with financing fail to closeFirst check with your lender to ascertain if they have a work aroundSecond, depending on the results of the FSM inspection, you may be able to turn on the utilities for a short period at your expense. 

I have asked him what violation he saw and how I can fix it to ascertain specifically what he has seen that needs a permit (no reply after 24hrs).

If one investor owns 100 homes with that pool of properties being under the same management, same market conditions, same risk assumptions and other aspects being similar then an estimate of a cap rate for one more unit becomes more valid or ascertainable.

Is it possible to ascertain how difficult it will be to resell.

My landlord has this language in the lease: "Tenant hereby acknowledges that late payment will cause landlord to incur costs not contemplated by this rental agreement, the exact amount of which will be extremely difficult to ascertain. 

but for sure during your due diligence you could reasonably ascertain what the extent of the clean up would be.. we are not talking about a 30k gallon gas tank or some Mill site ..   

Public information - good to go, but in order to ascertain their credit history/score, you'll definitely need their approval.