They're done for purposes of taxes, not selling.None of the sites you mention will give an accurate value.

I am looking for either fixer-uppers or ones that need very little work to purchase for rental purposes.

The longer you hold the property for investment purposes the stronger your case will be if the Internal Revenue Service questions the sufficiency of your intent.Advisors Recommend Holding the Property for 12 Months or More Tax advisors frequently recommend that you hold the subject property for at least one (1) year to prove your intent to hold for investment.

You're essentially using and paying someone who you didn't vet for your purposes.

( I think Steven Hamilton agrees with this) --I heard if house on "fire" then, insurance will pay who is on the title.There are a couple of different solutions to this, the one I prefer is to maintain the policy in the previous owners name (but never make a claim since the would be fraud) for the purpose of not alerting the lender of the change of title.

My mom is actually interested in one of the properties for living purposes so I could "partner" with her and let her purchase the 30k and I get the 40k.

Is it recommended to add shear walls for lateral purpose?

It looks like it may not matter which one you prefer as Z and TRLA are in talks to merge (as my shares of TRLA go H.A.M. to the upside).While they both serve a purpose, I agree with the other posters, you can't beat MLS for the best data.

For a newbie, I can see how that could be helpful for estimation purposes, but to me, that seems a bit time consuming and misleading especially towards the contractors.  

I guess I just want to have a professional look to my business for networking purposes.