They do bi-annual property inspections of units which always uncovers something fairly major i then have to get fixed (ceiling falling down!???).  

I think as I said, it was the uncovered maintenance issues that my poor tenants were living with for a while that caused me to post.  

Even the story of people who get whacked with some massive and uncovered medical expense who file is usually led up to with other bad marks on their reports.

Assuming that they are being assessed at an inflated value rather than what the property is really worth.I would also question why they are so far below comps in rent based on what your research uncovered. 

Can the lowest bidder provide the speed and quality you are looking for at lowest price because he has the lowest overhead, or because he lowballs bids to get the work, and then nickels and dimes you to death with up-charges for all the unforseen "problems" he uncovers.

Or you could go to a title company and pay for a title search which could uncover other liens or first and second mortgages.

If you have uncovered something that is not out on the market I may not have seen it. 

Usually spending a few minutes skip-tracing and talking to anyone I can find with knowledge of the property uncovers the fraud if it is indeed a fake seller (most often the number that my skip-tracing software computes is different than the one the scammer is using and when I call it I get the real owner who is surprised to hear that someone is selling their property).

If you have an inspection done and it uncovers a repair that you hadn't factored into your purchase price you could ask the seller to fix it or lower your offer price and the seller would have the opportunity to agree with it or cancel the contract.

I gurantee you that if you even spent a month doing just that you'll be 10000% smarter about your Orange County market and uncovering the insights you need to find and flip the right deals that make you money.