The tax assessment was approximately $2k per year and now the owners also pay an excessively high monthly water bill. 

Not entirely sure about how to set up something for a faster return that's compatible with buy and hold.

An additional fee of $10.00 per day shall be assessed for each additional day Rent is late, until Rent is paid in full.

You get hit with land + improvements (the home) which are usually assessed at a value close to your purchase price + land with maybe even then some if the area has been rapidly appreciating.

I then went to the assessment website to get that information.

The biggest thing you need to watch out for is special assessments.

The problem is the property will not sell to buyers 50% assessed value.

Never solely rely on a county’s tax assessment to determine the market value.

The average investor on BP doesn't understand the IRR, and that's another answer.It's a hypothetical to gauge average investor mentality on this platform, and to assess whether SFH is simply the investment vehicle that is available to them in one way or another, or if there is more depth in the thought process that goes into the SFH portfolio investment in mid-west/rust-belt states. 

However, these are complex investment vehicles which require in-depth understanding from you, as you reverse-engineer the offering to assess risk/reward.