@Account Closed is right. The notice of sale at the courthouse should share this information. Yes, it'd be okay to reach out to the foreclosure attorney or auction house conducting the sale. Some are more forthcoming than others, but you can always reach out to a title company (sometimes at a fee) to get a preliminary title report for the most accurate picture of what's honestly going on with the property.
At any time, the foreclosure attorney or auction house can pull the property from being sold due to a number of reasons, including coming to a mutual agreement with the owner. However, I wouldn't take what the owner tells you at face value. Unfortunately, people either don't truly understand what's going on or are in denial or just are straight up putting on a brave face. For example, there's a property in my complex currently at auction until Monday on auction.com. Although I work for Auction.com, I've never personally bid on a property, plus I work on the courthouse steps in the Trustee/Foreclosure end and have never really been involved in the bank owned/REO online auctions. So did a little homework, found some info, and because the property is in the same complex I live, I decided to walk over (not allowed to trespass, but you're allowed to be friendly :)) Talked with the owner and she's telling me how everything is being taken care of, but I've heard this 100 times over. I shared with her that she needs to be sure to have an attorney/lawyer on her side who walks her through this process and ensures she understand what's really happening. Needless to say, her property did go to auction and is currently still up for auction until Monday when the auction ends.
Hope all this helps! :)
Here's an article by auction.com on Due Diligence with foreclosure properties:
http://www.auction.com/blog/due-diligence-10-steps...
