It's not viable for the majority of businesses to have a significant portion of their work force work from home, so I would disagree that the value of office buildings will decrease over time.

The key is to (always) buy  with the worst case in mind, so if things go south for a while with the economy, etc, you're still in a position of having income, even if it's decreased somewhat.Remember, when housing goes bust, more ppl need to rent.

Have you ever seen the fair market rents DECREASE (or has funding been cut?)

Typical 5 year ARMs with <25 year amortizations which can increase the monthly payment and decrease cashflow.   

Then they adjust the mill rate to ensure that the necessary amount is raised in total.The salient point is, if everyone's value increases, then it doesn't necessarily mean your particular tax bill will increase, in fact (somewhat counter intuitively) it might actually decrease, if your value didn't increase as much as other properties did.So that's why it's essentially to check out the other part of the equation and determine if the mill rate went down.Individual towns do have financial challenges (e.g., pensions/entitlements) coming up, and let's not forget that Central Falls did declare bankruptcy in the last financial crisis.

Let's just say he spent about a good 15 plus minutes bad mouthing the property (claims were baseless) and suggesting ways that I could get the seller to decrease the price.This worries me.

They will send you an escrow analysis once a year to show you how they are handling your money and will adjust the escrow payment for any increase or decrease if it goes over their allowed limit or if you're not paying enough to cover your insurance and taxes.   

I currently buy fixers/dated properties for a flipping company in SoCal and we have been adjusting our numbers due to the recent decrease in buyer activity.

As a limited partner, I would almost prefer syndicators go to a lower LTV model in the 65% range and with fixed rate debt to de-risk a bit and I would wonder if educated passive investors would be willing to take this incremental decrease in returns to de-risk.  

@Tea Doggett Significantly decrease your learning curve by partnering with a seasoned investor.