Sounds like the opposite type of person you want in your asset.  

What type of brokerage were you working with?

And as I said in a previous post, you may have to go back multiple years to find new builds in the urban area and compare them to resales and see if you can estimate a value difference.There is no easy way to do this in that complex situation and many appraisers, IMO, are not skilled or educated enough to do that type of deep-dive analysis, and/or do not get paid enough (in the current appraisal climate) in order to take the proper time and use the proper tools to do what's required.

Happy to point you in the right direction, I've worked with different types of lenders and you just have to find someone that understands your scenario.

From what I see in your post, the only issue thus far is expecting 20% down on an undesirable collateral type to most lenders...Cheers!

I don’t know what to look up or what to type when it comes to understanding how each city is doing when it comes to RE and/or what to look for. 

Unless you are rather experienced with this type of damage, it may be hard for you to tell the extent of damage.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Did you filter by type?

They're more expensive but the underwrite is easier due to gross rents vs. having expense factors (like any type of normal commercial lender).