Id like to know if the place has been just scraping by or usually passes cleanly.

Maybe not a plan if you have large multi's, for small stuff works great and prices are usually good.

Usually in the beginning i was doing bare minimum pretty much to get then rented out which realistically most of them have payed for themselves.

I realize leveraging your primary is usually not advised - but I have plenty of equity even in a 50% market crash, and am in a strong market (SF Bay Area)Appreciate any advice!

I usually just do what makes sense and seems fair.

That advice, that the old rules of valuation no longer apply, is usually followed up with vigor.

Great realtor to back into values2. builders to get idea of vertical sq ft costs3. land planner/ engineer for the city county state permitting process.So I find out the big rocks.. then hone in a property that seems good.put it into contract .. then I hire a consulting engineer land planner to do a feasablity study.. if your an existing bigger client they usually do them for free .. in exchange to get your work.but most likely you will have to pay for it.. 5 to 10k is what you can expect.this will include what needs to be done for regulatory approvals.will include environmental hurdles IE who you have to hire / do yo need a wetlands study etc.basic take off on infrastructure costs..

It may definitely get in the way when it comes to beginner investors looking immediately to Zillow or Redfin for properties and property values (as they usually do), but for experienced investors I believe they will be able to see right through their deals. 

There were about 200 people there but Louisville usually has 50 to 80 houses in forclosures every 2 weeks you can get on the website www.jeffcomm.com for the dates, they do an appraisal usually a week before the auction and there is also a handbill that shows what is owed to the lender.I usually mark the ones im interested in, and yes I work it on a budget, then I go and view the properties and make my own assessments then i run the numbers and sometimes you can get a good deal. 

So if you are purchasing a house with land, you typically would try to allocate more of the price to the house, as you don't take depreciation on land.If your goal is maximum taxable writeoffs and you have a number of other properties, you may want to look into cost segregation (but it won't be worth it if you only have this property).Keep in mind that when you sell the property, you'll have to pay tax on the depreciation (usually a 25% rate).Be sure to chat with a CPA about allocating the purchase price in a sale, as you need to follow one of the multiple acceptable ways to allocate.Also, depending on how the rest of your portfolio looks and your timetable for holding, being less aggressive in allocating the purchase to high depreciation items may work out better.