Aside from the legal and compliance issues involved, if an IRS auditor requested bank and credit card statements, why needlessly expose your personal transactions?

There are also special assessments I would check the property out on the county auditor site to see what the taxes are consisting of, this will give you an idea of the taxes.

On the one I closed on, the title company eventually did it the way I request and then when we checked the Franklin County auditors site the name there is simply the trustee's name. 

Though I'm not an attorney, and this is my non-legal opinion, I'd take the position that this could be a very bad deal for you if you were to back date and then someone find out.An IRS auditor may wonder why, if the sale occurred 1/1, it took you 60+ days to receive funds from the buyer.

It has been my experience with IRS auditors that if you do more than 2 flips per year, they consider you a dealer.

From their I would go to the county auditor's website, get the name and mailing address of the owner and start with the handwriting yellow letters.

Probate and code enforcement can be found in county auditors office/ code violation department.

In my "full time job" I am a Commercial Energy auditor.

Include a check for the exact amount, payable to the xXxX county auditor (here).

I also wanted to note, if you are purchasing the duplex at a price that is significantly below the auditor's appraised value of the property, you can file a complaint and try to get the appraised value lowered.