@Michael Lerch - Why is the option fee relevant in 3 years?

I would look into Essex county (Bloomfield, Oranges, Linden etc) and Bergen county(Ridgefield park, Lodi, Garfield etc) If you are looking for someone to help you finding the relevant prospects in Essex talk to @Darren Sager , he is great.I hope that helps,Lior

@Alex Johncock - It seems that you've at least tried to account for all of the relevant expenses.

Since the process of equalization is to create 'fair' taxation based on the assets you could use it to reverse engineer the Fair Market Value they used.That said, certainly the time which the FMV is actually relevant to the market will matter.

Reminds me of the telephone phone trees.... where the customer in exasperation finally cries out for "Live Person!"

Can you quote the relevant building codes chapter and verse?  

Running afoul of relevant laws can be expensive.

All of this to say, unless the agent has a proven track record for renting similar places or a network of potential customers (read: international companies regularly relocating workers), I wouldn't bother with them.

Make some more calls - call an agent or two on the other side of your state, who may see you as bonus business, not a local customer to try and steer into a full replacement policy, unless, you really want to build a new home right where your rental is on the very outside chance there's a total loss. 

I guess my long term plan is relevant in this discussion.