They have auditors breathing down their necks and must show they received the most layers of security on a loan and underwrote it properly.

The Cuyahoga County auditor's website does show owners' address. http://myplace.cuyahogacounty.us/They just switched to a new system that is SO MUCH better than the old one, both in ease of use and visuals (bigger font, a big map right in the middle).

It APPEARS that this is because the property is behind on taxes and the auditor has a tax lien on the property.

You should be able to look up the current owner on your auditors site.

I went from valet to lead valet to Auditor to where I am now as an Operations Manager.

One thing I can tell you after having gone to both law school and Accounting school is that if you get five different attorneys or CPAs in a room and present them with the same fact pattern,  you will never get the exact answer from any two of them as they were all be somewhat different and the same isn't applicable to to IRS auditors.  

A sharp auditor would likely classify it as a step transaction and then disqualify the 1031 Exchange.  

Are you concerned it might be an immoral strategy - going to the auditor before the tax sale? 

Using our Columbus Auditor's site, I've put together a list of all of the properties I'd like to potentially purchase.

I jumped on the county auditor’s website to check, and just as he stated, the property was in Bob’s name.After some quick phone calls, we determined that the attorney who had filed the foreclosure missed the assumption of bid paperwork in the file.