One that doesn’t make money on volume/quantity of piers installed, but on providing professional, honest, and accurate assessments.

We agreed on a little more than the city assessed value, for price.

Some company I was referred to sells them for almost every county that’s online and the prices were between $300 for 30 days which included the address and assessed value and went up to $450 for 90 days.They had an option to add Zillow values to the sheet as well. 

(On another note I assume you mean assessed and not appraised.

One special assessment can wipe out months or years of cash flow.

There is decent equity in the house: $125k or so on the mortgage and current assessment around $420K.

I know there is plenty of gray areas but a direct assessment from someone who has done both ways would be appreciated,thanks.

To be honest, you are unlikely to get an accurate assessment of a property without looking at it or having someone physically check it out on your behalf.

Assessed value is usually much lower than appraised value. 

I agree with your assessment of the "desirable" areas in SA.