After doing a little digging I found out that crepd llc owns the property which is a subsidiary of First Merit bank.

@Maria Marrero I do like the path your on , it has it's own merit!

Do you have enough personal assets to merit that much layered protection?

_r=1&Deciding between Charlotte and Philadelphia was challenging, but this is how I did it: Step 9: I pulled high level statistics from Trulia, the census bureau, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (college educated percentage, commuter percentages, house hold income, median age, home owners percentage, marital status, crime, 1900 to present population growth, 10 year jobs growth rates).Charlotte won out on household income, less crime, population growth, jobs growth and more college educated peoplePhiladelphia had more renters, less driving to commute, more single peopleI also pulled approximate rents and median home prices by neighborhood and Philadelphia won on better cap ratesStep 10: My final decision: Philadelphia Philadelphia is also closer to NYC (2 hour train ride), has improving demographic trends (gentrification), more affordable for my budget, stronger rents, and larger urban center with more investment options (SFR and MFR)There are obviously downsides such as older buildings, higher crime rates, historical population growth issues We can debate the merits of one city over another, but eventually one has to get off the proverbial pot and make a decision.

There are a number of us here on BP and even more forum posts on the merits of each company. 

Overall, I am way ahead on the gains vs. losses, but I think your thread has a lot of merit - people do need to understand it's not all rainbows and unicorns. 

If you've reverse engineered this opportunity and determined it has merit, decide how much time, money and effort that you're willing to risk by using a pro skip-tracer to locate your target.If you have not done the research, use my PETIO format.

The process Is not so taxing as to merit a huge discount.

If it ain't listed, an agent won't be if much help.As Account Closed noted, you need at minimum a skip tracer (or a PI) to locate record owner.Strongly suggest you search PETIO format on these forums to first determine IF the house has merits worth further investigation. 

Start with one property at a time.Use the PETIO method to segment those with merit (search term on this site for explanation).Use online and offline skip tracing methods to locate missing owners, heirs, creditors and claimants.