A private lender is a person and you vet in person by assessing your relationship with them and common friendships. 

I noticed a trend of people bidding about a third to half the tax assessed value which was way above the taxes owed. 

It's Summer now basically and Water heater doesn't need to work as hard.

We've basically settled on only being interested in buying places that are in line with our monthly cost to rent. 

Quite honestly, all this will do is complicate things for you (as it did for me)...essentially, since they are both single member LLCs, you'll basically have to report the separate activities on two separate Schedule Cs for income tax purposes...

They were basically trying to refi the existing while adding themselves to the deed. 

Is it permissible to use the allocation of building to land from the county property tax assessment instead of an appraisal? 

My two 4-plexes next door is basically the same floor plan and is about 30 sq ft smaller. 

In my state of SC the way property tax is assessed for rentals is (assessed value x .06 and that times .1 but that does not include additional taxes that businesses are hit with that owner occupied isn't.

The basic rent roll information should be provided by the listing agent.