How much should I worry about being in an area with good school systems and other indicators of value?

Are these estimated values reliable indicators of what a properties worth might be, or do they routinely come in low? 

There are lagging & leading indicators with respect to where a neighborhood is heading regarding investment. 

Now, if you really are looking at the property as pure investment, you need to get a better handle on the ARV, I think, as the improvements are going to be costly and you do not indicate what you understand the place will fetch after it has been improved. 

The key here is to find the property tax rate for your area which will be a good indicator of what you will actually have yo pay in taxes.   

When you contact them someone that "wants to give them money" and they are already slow to respond, it could be an indicator of how they will communicate once they have your money. 

No indication of decline with the SFH’s that are being listed.

Hence, when predicting future foreclosures, a practitioner can (and does) use S-TR filings as a leading indicator of defaults in a county, region, area, or whatever. 

Depending on they types of neighborhoods that you want to target, you may or may not care about these things but income level, median home prices and appreciation can all help indicate the type of market.On a macro-level, you could follow the trending cities; those will be more competitive but they're more likely to be fruitful.More quantitatively, you definitely want to do your cash flow analysis and aim for a ROI return of at least 8-12%.

@Klint Ruud If the last few months are any indication, I would say, looks like it.