Zillow presents their Zestimate to the public in big bright lights, but buries the disclosure. 

my legal record is squeaky clean. the real answer to why i don't get section 8 is probably because i'm very disorganized and erroneously thought it was for people who are officially disabled. i will look into it some more, thanks. another layer to this is that i'm hoping to live in a place where i can work on the vintage furniture that i sell online which rules out public housing and i think that section 8 would add to the reasons that landlords don't usher me in. 

@Dana Sarcona if you’re still looking areas like Secaucus (besides the North End flood zone areas) Rutherford, Lyndhurst and Carlstadt all have good schools, safe neighborhoods with easily accessible public trans to NYC.

Can anyone recommend a good website or app to search Public Records?

Don’t say how much money you or anyone else has on a public forumStep 2.

Then you can mail or cold call or both.Other cheap or free methods are driving for dollars, craigslist, Realtors, FSBO sites, expired listings, foreclosure sites and bandit signs if allowed.If you have the funds you can use billboards, newspaper ads, other offline publications., TV commercials, radio ads, motivated seller website, SEO, pay per click/adwords, facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, and other forms of online advertising and boosted/promoted social media postings.Bottom line is consistency.

What would be the best way to start investing in real estate with this public record on my background? 

What I don't like are these sites that charge and then you find out you are paying for public knowledge.

That information is a public now.

That being said, I would check public records and see what they do list as the legal number of beds and appraiser usually will go with that.