The podcasts are a great place to start- the books on this site are well worth the read as well 

There should be permit records with a site plan showing the location of the septic tank as well as the rest of the system.

Many web sites for that. 

In a lot of ways, C, C+, B, etc are in the eye of the beholder, so look for a place you (and potential compatible tenants/roommates) will be comfortable moving around in every day and forget what grade someone else might give it.Once you have the basic requirements decided, I'd go on a real estate sales site (Zillow is my personal favorite, but also Redfin, Realtor.com etc) and just start looking around at listings in your price range to find affordable neighborhoods to target and start driving around, then drive drive drive.

It's great to see more people from Nova Scotia on this site!

Then some tourist kid has the gall to be site-seeing while you get your 20 minute break from your 14 hr days.

I'm new to the site and currently own a residential home in southern Michigan that I rent out as a Vacation Rental.

You could visit the site daily or weekly, you could require them to send pictures at the end of the day, or you could have a third party inspect their work.

I have learned a lot from this site and the podcasts. 

Meaning does the value of the site depend on the zone change?