Is my realtor correct in his assessment of Lorain/Elyria/Cleveland, or are the riots an excuse for him to stay close to his office in Elyria?

They usually leave tons of personal belongings behind, appliances full of rotten food, everything is absolutely filthy, and then only after you get a junk removal service (which with the dumpster will cost a few thousand dollars alone) can you actually assess the structural issues.

It’s been on the market for 230 days, it’s assessed for 245, comps in the area go for 290 and they only want 175 for it.

Guess my best bet is going to find a partner that would be able to provide a cash purchase upfront and then go to a bank afterward and just get a conventional loan at 80% of the assessed value. 

Without being able to see the property in person, how can you assess the repair costs?

I won't have time to get an assessment done so I'm trying to do my best and get a conservative ball park number for the remediation. 

I suggest you self assess and see what areas you're weak in and learn that 

This assists the seller in not feeding the house.A licensed property manager gives a written rental assessment of the market rent of the property, and this is placed in the seller's file.A credit improvement company with underwriting experience and knows the Fair Credit Reporting Act (see ftc.gov) assists the tber in increasing their FICO score so they have a better chance to getting the mortgage than if they were left to their own devices.I hope these ideas help.

Then look at the assessed value that the tax collector is using.

I think your agent is not a property tax expert.You want to look up the process yourself for your area and see how it works.You also want to investigate HELOC's and any collection repurcussions in your state versus a regular loan if you default later on.Some properties are under assessed and not over assessed so just make sure you have a strong case or your tax bill could go up instead.