With rates still relatively low, this can still be advantageous.

Definitely start jumping into the community here and feel free to ask any questions related to Real Estate investing!

And I am relatively conservative by nature. 

Again, health wise, you would be taking way too big of a risk.

Could be related to misreported accounts, credit report errors, identity theft, divorce that included joint accounts, or even legitimate accounts that had been settled or could be paid off quickly.We've had terrific long term tenants who messed up their credit history and were forced to become long-term renters since they would never qualify for a home mortgage. 

Are there any other ways to feel relatively safe you will not be hit with a big unknown lien once you buy?

This positive experience has turned me onto real estate and other related opportunities.

Have you ever had a tenant that you are in court evicting call the Health Department on you for problems that they directly caused?...

Please feel free to share your experience and input, I am sure some investors will relate to these pesky little concerns.

Zillow openly explains this at https://www.zillow.com/zestimate/ and publishes their median error rates and other stats for some major metro areas at https://www.zillow.com/zestimate/#acc.The good news is, it's relatively easy to validate how accurate it is for your market:Have your realtor pull 50 or 100 active and sold homes in the market/neighborhood you want to analyze.Compare actual asking and sold prices to the Zestimate for each one, put them in a spreadsheet, and develop some averages.