Jump forward im about to close on Tuesday.The house was assessed for the mortgage at 500k and was told by my agent and my own research that the house could be assessed after renovations at around 600k. 

We've done a lot (and spent a lot, including a $57k assessment for each condo owner) to the complex to improve it and I don't want to go backwards. 

1 - Finding and underwriting the deal (Are you email lists of brokers who mail you deals every now and then and if so what makes a deal worth pursuing does the broker send the property’s financials you just plug into excel and if it looks good you tour the property and how)2 - Touring the property (How long do you take to tour the property maybe a week and what do you look for, damages, do you speak to tenants to assess them or ask what they pay in rent, do you look at any improvements that may need to be made?)

I would agree with @Ian Boyd and his assessment of Billings, Great Falls, and Butte are all easier investments to get into, but Great Falls will offer you the most cash flow. 

Individualized assessments: Like in Minneapolis, this change would allow landlords to screen applicants using an individualized assessment.

Might be a good idea to go for the lower end to lock it up and re-assess next year.

I get that they seem all but identical but they really are miles apart, vastly different assessment systems, completely different marketing and sales models, just really 2 different worlds in total. 

CoC I view as a convenient metric to assess the income-producing power of the asset, but nothing more.

I've been using my county tax data to see the assessed values.

Have any of you encountered this type of decision point when assessing a similar deal?