You could take a dated picture of your future property on the first and use it to protest in May.

If there is no mortgage on the property, you could give the seller the money to install the septic as a mortgage in the 1st position to protest your money.When dealing with banks, they can complicate things so, the 203k could take some time or not even close the deal.Hope this helps

It will also be interesting to see how investors in the area react to the higher property taxes if their protests are denied.

You seem to be on top of things other than that make sure that the county has assessed the property properly and be prepared to protest after closing if they have not, title should let you know if there are any liens, if occupied get copies of the leases and/ or tenant estoppel certificates.

Just make sure you protest them.

As of recently the sale has been tied up as one of the owners is trying to protest it through the courts. 

Here is the letter of their decision where the contractor filed a protest with them.

As everyone has already said it depends but you should always be prepared to protest.

You can most certainly protest the value of the property with the County appraisal district and a lot of investors win.

The Borrower and all sureties, guarantors and endorsers hereof, waive presentment, protest and demand, notice of protest, demand and dishonor and nonpayment of this Loan.