You can lookup the tax assessment on any property online, but will not see the ownership information or whether the tax account is current.We get "unofficial" leads on properties from realtors, lawyers (usually as referrals) and mail carriers (they make great bird dogs).As for wholesaling, I've never seen it as a viable practice here in Canada, particularly in the Maritimes - due to the relative size of the real estate inventory, low default/foreclosure rates, conditioning of Canadians to use real estate agents, etc.  

I doubt his phone carrier will wait till that house is done and sold to accept payment.

Very soon you will realize that you will make up 50+ unsupported reasons no to start your RE carrier.

I am not having much success locally to find carriers that will insure them.  

My experience with roof coverage claims, (unless catastrophic) has been difficult if not impossible.We had a mixed use commercial property where the carrier dropped us for a 'potential' roof leak...it had a flat roof on the large warehouse portion, hence prone to leaks!!! 

I believe that insurance carrier was called ASI.

Florida Family (a carrier, not an agent) will write it for an LLC.

I guess I need to find out if I'm covered for this type of situation, but my carrier is Allstate and, not only do they suck!

JD Powers ranks homeowners insurance (that includes rentals) carriers by several factors including claims satisfaction.

The carrier has to tear it all down, dispose of it, pay soft costs and upgrade it to current building codes (ADA, green building codes, AFCI, sprinklers, etc) that could be much more costly than the original construction.