There is no substitute for physically walking through properties.  

Since all the rights and obligations of the lease are transferred to the new owner, your name is basically substituted wherever the prior landlord's name is on the original lease.

There are a lot of substitute carriers so they still might miss the connection.

Unless the Mortgagee allows the formal assumption, the substitute Borrower and underlying Mortgagee are not contractually bound.  

While that is absolutely no substitute for a battery of surveys (soils, etc) performed by the appropriate engineers, it can help get you a basic idea about the property and what kind of work might be necessary.  

Builders have slowed down, MBS are at a historic high vs 10 years, if you substitute case shiller for owners equivalent rent; inflation is negative, and there are lots and lots of people who want to buy but are waiting to see what happens.

The best investors do, or at least begin that way, and there is no substitute for experience. - It will take twice as long.

There’s no substitute for learning yourself, and some things can’t be properly learned until you experience them.

And remember the law of substitution: no one will pay more for a property than what they would for an equivalent property that they can build or buy cheaper elsewhere. 

Secondly, I search the legal notice in the newspaper for substitute trustee's notice of sale.