Newbie question on gathering information

[Robert Rodriguez]

So I have yet to find a mentor in my area, but will be going to my first REI Club this week. Until I do get a mentor I figured I could ask questions on here. I live and plan on rehabbing houses in the Northern Virginia area. I've been reading people's post and I hear them talk about making sure the title is free and clear. How or where do I go to research this? I also have herd of going to the county website or court house and see who is buying all the houses with cash and in what area. Well I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go for that either.

Some have said that you MAY be able to find the information on a website... well here is a website for one of the county's near me: http://www.pwcounty.org/ or http://www.courts.state.va.us/courts/home.html are the links i'm looking for somewhere on here and I just don't know it?

Would I need to check every counties website? Same goes for courthouses, would I need to go to every counties courthouse?

Not looking for someone to do the leg work for me, just figured I have used the ignorance excuse long enough and would like to find out how to get this information.

Thank you