Are they tracking what IPs do after they leave their site?

I'm not going to hold a tenant hostage or make them pay rent if they finished their work contract early and need to leave town.

I am concerned that the closing statement would not record the actual price I am paying for the property.

In my experience, the turnaround time is fairly short and can be done in January/February and still leave enough time for your accountant to file taxes. 

If you had concerns about the asset if and when you pass away and would like to avoid probate, a Revocable Living Trust that owns the LLC that acts as a Holding Company is a good option.

I was concerned at first.

My thinking is this leaves me with two paths: A) Best case is I pick up the foreclosure for $1M, immediately list it for sale at $1.6M or more and hopefully sell for a > $500K pretax profit. 

I see agents leaving the industry a lot right now. 

And while someone paying a professional to do a detailed and relatively costly search may be able to ascertain your wealth status; a superficial search would probably leave the potential plaintiff believing you lacked the assets to make a lawsuit worthwhile. 

Lawton definitely has its reputation, and you're right about the single-industry concern and the high crime perception, which makes it counterintuitive for many investors.