If there's asbestos in your prospective house, there's a few places it could be:
1. In the ducting (insulation) for your forced-air heating system;
2. As the adhesive or as part of vinyl, tile, or sheet flooring;
3. In the joint compound that is used to tape over the seams in sheetrock;
4. In acoustic ceilings, or "popcorn ceiling" texturing.
There's probably other places, but that's where it's common in our houses.
If you're concerned, it's not terribly expensive here (US) to get tests done. We had our house tested before beginning renovations. It cost $250 or so for the environmental consultant to come out, and $30 per area tested. We had several areas tested, and they would also test for radon, lead paint, etc. if we were concerned.
It turns out that we did have asbestos in the joint compound and in the ducting for our heating system; we paid to have professionals remove it (we have young children and I was not prepared to do the work myself and risk it with them living here); that was the more expensive part (about $2500 for the areas we had done, which included removing our old furnace and the crushed/damaged asbestos ducting).
If I were purchasing a rental property, I'd be willing to get the testing done and then use that as part of my negotiation tactics, depending on the market. You may choose a different route. Good luck!