Sometimes it is better to insure your first few properties with your primary insurer because the policies will offer more comprehensive coverage than say Foremost or American Reliable.

Sometimes it's to assess the condition prior to taking private responsibility for it (the City of San Diego wants to privatize stuff so they no longer have to fix it).

Tax assessment is $276k.

The assessment is $89,000.  

Purchased the house for 30k under assessed value and some renovations underway as well, so already have substantial equity in the property.

This seems to be looking at the outside and getting an assessment?"

Not sure how assessments impact the costs, so any pointers would be great3.

Triplex-1 unit is a 2 BR/1 BA that gets $750/month.2 units are 1 BR/1 BA and get $695/month each. ( I would live in one of these)Total rental Income of property each month is $2,140, or $25,680/yr.Monthly expenses are:RPU - $150MN Energy - $120Trash - $20Insurance - $140Taxes - $151Total monthly expenses: $581/month or $6,972/yr.He told me that he just had a market assessment done and with a realtor it would list for 175,000k.

I am in the process of looking at other surrounding property to see if my assessed value is higher.To the point of your water issue, I should pay closer attention to what mine says but as I looked at it the majority charges were from the assessed value.

You would want to ascertain all of your cost, escrow fee, HOA dues, insurance if not covered by the HOA dues, You will want to do a walk through the unit to assess any existing or needed repairs.