Since you have a limited area that you want, you should look into the Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) program that the post office offers.

Finally I found someone who would get back to me in the office and asked her to find out what was going on.

You can always call the tax office and ask them directly what the property taxes are for any property and they will tell you.

Many, many phone calls, meetings and inquiries later I went through the process without a hitch with a loan officer at a Wells Fargo branch that is 6 hours from where I live.

We hired an attorney and when all was said and done between the time our office, property managers, court costs and attorneys fees were all added up we were probably around $5k.  

If you plan to pay them, be prepared to pay $100/hr from the time they leave their shop/house/site to the time they get back plus any office time they put in for the estimates assuming you're in NY because you never said where it was you were looking

So take what I say with a grain of salt.The first thought that occurred to me is to double-triple-check that the property's conversion from a duplex to a triplex was approved by city or county inspectors, and recorded with the recorder's office. 

I have about 70-100k cash that I can use and got a pre approval for 200k ,based on the parameters given to the home loan officer.  

Agents do you choose your office location based on the area you want to work in or whatever is closest to your home ? 

A local law enforcement officer could give you more pointers.