That's a very poor way to value a property for a purchase, but you need to ask the assessor what appraisal method they use, most do not use a market value approach.Assessors really don't have the ability to look at each property, they use a "Block Appraisal) that looks ate average prices by the sq. ft. in an area and the type of property.

The deals I was sorry about where the ones that ate the most personal time.  2nd set of deals I was sorry for where the ones that ate the most cash.  

It is a business if you ate actively managing it.

@Thomas HaregotI'm a big fan of league city ( though it sounds like you ate going after Houston properties ).

On one house I have they left the trusses alone, but ate away all the 1X3 ceiling furring strips nailed to the bottom of the trusses, turned them into swiss cheese i can crunch with bare hands. 

Maybe, in this case, the lamb ate the wolf.

It was just over a 5 cap, 2.8% Cash on Cash, brand new and fits my investing profile to a tee.

Someone who was in my shoes, now have the system down to a tee, please help  and maybe some hands on experience in pursuit of my first deal.  

, a very frugal lifestyle and saving every possible penny for over a year now (ask my kids when the last time they ate anything I didn't cook was) and a 401k loan. 

If we ate more meat I'm sure our bill would be much higher.