Is the property supposed to be assessed on fair market value or purchase price? 

I have a great deal with a super motivated seller but he has self managed since he purchased the property so he has no formal records but in my assessment his properties are a steal.My dilemma is all of my investors like paper trails and are to nervous to take the risk how can I make to deal work without the normal paper trail.

There are other real estate investments that range in passivity but are all much easier to manage from NNN stand alone projects to ground leases, even raw land in series in the path of progress.  

Your message makes sense, The most common way to make progress toward a second property is to make the first property one that is a duplex or triplex, so you can live there and rent part of the property out to generate income right from the start, basically paying your mortgage.

Any special assessment of water-sewer bills, weed abatement, etc. become an encumbrance that goes with the property, not just IRS liens. 

The assessment of property values can change from one city to the next and tax rates can and will vary significantly depending on where the property is located.If you are looking for rates for a specific city, mentioning it might get you a better response from somebody who invests there.

My wife and I are willing to start our journey with a live and flip, for the best price of course, and want to make sure the agent understands our goals to help us progress successfully!

I appreciate the info and I'll certainly follow your progress too.

After contacting the landlord and stating that I've done my research and feel they're responsible and codes has backed me up, they told me to "do whatever I think I need to do" when I offered to have a codes inspector come assess the situation.

While your money is just sitting around....if you lay out a timeline for everything you can better assess what type of investment account to put it in.