Auctions and past liens - Need Help

[Alan Wolkov]

I want to know if I really need to be concerned with past liens on sheriff sale foreclosures at auctions? I need an advanced response with specific sources/sites I should consider using. PLEASE no general responses. I attended a few sheriff sales. I've studied properties/areas of interest. I've even run title reports on properties I was going to bid on; which cost $100's...only to have all the properties I was going to bid have a 'stay.' I asked around to other bidders; if they had workarounds regarding their dealing with past liens and wasn't given any real answers; other than one person that was bidding heavy and I was sitting next to at auction...and he informed me really clearly not to worry about past liens; but he didn't go into details with me. He was busy bidding. Obviously, I don't want to bid/win property to find out I owe lots of money on past liens. Am I confused to think I will owe on past debts of these auction foreclosure properties? If responsible is there a way to have past liens completely removed after I win foreclosure auction on property or pay some fines to have past liens/debts removed? If I can learn how to get past this hurdle, I am ready to bid/win properties to fix/flip in PA/NJ.