Perhaps looking on the tax assessor's web site to see if the property owner owns the house in his/her name.

Unless the deal that you are getting is worth it the gamble. 

First, stay of the web when looking for money.

On show 325 at 1:27:00 he mentions a web service (padlock.com) where you can enter an address and buy the owner information like phone number, loans on the property, ARV, etc....   

Check out my web site https://oakridgehomesco.com/ and you can download information about Pueblo West from the site. 

No one was selling over the Web as the Web was not invented until about 8 years after I started.

However, I am not 100 percent sure this would be consistent income so it's kind of a gamble.

Should I wait and gamble that they won’t sell so I can do a conventional loan to buy both? 

I’ve been searching the web and RE sites, and have found a few places out of state where the numbers look really good for cash flow and CoC return, and I’m ready to start viewing the properties and making the next steps.My question to the community is this; is it better to have my own realtor with me to go through discussions and negotiations, or would it be okay to use the sellers realtor (assuming that is who is listed as the realtor on each site)?

I see it as more of a gamble than an investment.