His negative reaction and aversion to wanting a neutral third party to play referee was a tip off to me to do more research and after paying $25USD for an online background check on the seller I discovered he had multiple judgements against him for business fraud even though the title to the property was clear.My personal lessons from my scammer were1.

I started doing some research and reading online forums, and it seems like my friend isn't alone.

Switching online services is unfortunately not an option because the large majority of house seekers use zillow.

Nobody I know of uses faxes any more whether hard copy or online.

I see a lot of ads when reseaching online that make it sound like my scenario is possible, but I've been skeptical.

No, there is not a registration.  

It was definitely an eye opener especially because the pictures online showed a completely different picture of the state of the units.

Local municipalities and states have GIS data online that reveals much of how a property will be developed, even streams can be estimated (nothing like a photo of running water tho).

Find some that look interesting, write them down, find the contact information using a tool online.

This means that you will probably need to pay registration and filing fees in at least 2 states if you don’t buy CA property as a CA resident.Any lawsuits should be limited to the assets of the LLC and not your personal assets (assuming you run the LLC appropriately and the corporate veil is not pierced, some debate as to SMLLC).