You're not likely to get any tax returns, or other personal financial data from the seller without a contract, certainly not without showing the ability to actually buy.

Now I don't know how much to depend and trust on Trulia data..I don't live in Houston - yet - so haven't really checked those neighborhoods out yet, maybe som of the Houston residents know better?

During closing, the previous property manager mentioned that he would transfer the security deposit to me within a week but he never mentioned anything about the rent for August and I didn't think to ask about it either.I closed and took possession on August 3rd and my question is this; assuming the tenants paid their rent on the first, shouldn't that go to me or does it go back to the previous owner?

I use craigslist and city data as a baseline but want to make sure i'm not missing out any great resources. 

I'll be acquiring another future rental when I transfer to Florida in the near future.

They just need to have me transfer the property into my own name - basically be personally on title.

Another thing he sent me was a competitive market analysis which makes it easier to look through the data by giving you categories to look through.

And why should you cover the fee, it wasn't your fault.You can now require the rent be paid with cash or electronic transfer because of the bounced check.

In what format are you getting the data in from the county records?

The baseline prudential standards would cover eight areas, including capital, liquidity, risk management, data standards, data protection (including cyber risk), corporate governance, servicing transfer requirements, and change of control requirements (hereinafter, “Baseline Standards”).