Appreciate your assessment! 

You bought it as a primary and kept it to start investing, but that doesn't sound like a good investment and HOA can keep going up or there can be assessments and your appreciation is much lower in a condo than a single-family.

Assess your liquid savings (cash, short-term investments) and allocate a safe portion for your real estate investment.

In most markets, there is a cap on tax rise when you own the property, but once it sells, it goes uncapped and you will owe the full tax on the current assessed value.

Can't even find a way to get in to assess the damage properly myself though.

Analyze properties using tools like BiggerPockets Rental Property Calculator to assess if a property will cash flow.

And the 30% ratio does not work well in extremely low income area, you need to assess closer to 20 or 25% of income. 

- How do you assess the market and identify red flags?

Qualifying the BuyerCreditworthiness: Just like a bank, you should assess the buyer's creditworthiness.

How do you assess and manage risk when financing a large-scale fix-and-flip project?