If your Hard Money loan has a balloon payment or penalties to renew @ the end of 6 months you should assess the potential financial impact of a renewal on the deal.  

FHFA now claims, in a Nevada State District court, as a way to go around state Supreme Court ruling, that Fannie Mae is Federal, by virtue of being in an FHFA conservatory, and since FHFA is Federal, Fannie Mae must be held as a federal entity, and above state law regarding priority in foreclosure of its claim after an HOA assessment Foreclosure.

The only numbers that I have are the assessed value from the county assessor.

@Scott Williams assessment was spot on.

I wrote down streets I'm interested in for a specific pocket of one town, made notes for the shoddy ones, and I'm looking up info for each house on the street using the town assessment website.

Damage is harder to assess unless you can do a thorough walk through.

Hi all,I'm a part-time attorney in the Puget Sound region; I've never bought a home and I have fairly comprehensive construction skills from years in carpentry.  

Here are some numbers for you all:Purchase price: 78,001Principal Balance: 72800.18 @ 4.25%- 30 yr Conventional loan through BBT; The home was a foreclosure, but purchased the home from HUD through an online auction, and paid 5% down for Conventional loan with PMI.Monthly payment: 628.16Home owners insurance: 1034.68 (Allstate- Estimated cost to rebuild is 166,851)Current Property Assessment from County: 97,100 for building and 26,900 for land: Total- 124,000Zestimate (if this means anything): 123,382Square footage: 2020 with 1526 containing HVAC (Electric) and a converted garage into a carpeted room with window AC, 2 old wall heaters, washer/dryer/water heater, outside door around 494 sq ft.

When you decide to invest (research real estate in a particular zip code), this should one of the first things (websites) you need to locate.You can find accurate tax information, sold information of neighboring homes, tax assessed values of homes, actually owners, ... etc. 

I'm friends with a family that moved here about 6mo ago from Calgary.While I wish I could help more on the school issue (I'm just out of college myself, no kids, and not originally from Houston) - I can still say I wouldn't depend solely on online rating systems because who knows what they're really grading the school on, how they get their ratings, or if the areas they assess heavily are where most of your concern lies.