To be clear about the semantics involved;  an HOA "lien" is when the HOA actually records a lien in the public records, where you could have found it, as opposed to an "outstanding HOA debt" which is simply the debt owed, not recorded as a "lien", but still transfers to your as the new owner, by law.  

She was head of the future business leaders, outstanding student etc. 

I have Nationwide its about 52 a month on average for my 3 properties

Make sure that all that is outstanding is the $40k in taxes.

After 1-2 yrs I would sell the house to pay the outstanding debt. 

Something changes in their schedule, such as a big job gets awarded to them so they blow off any outstanding estimates they were processing, they lose a key employee so they don't have the man power to pursue the new projects they have looked at so they blow them off.

Do the laws vary by state, or are they imposed nationwide? 

Sounds like there is some outstanding lien that need to get cleared before they can sell.

I put together a page containing links to all the slide presentations that you've got from the BiggerPockets Summit 2012 as I wanted to make sure everyone could access these great resources.Here's a link:Presentations from the 2012 BiggerPockets Real Estate Investing SummitThere are still a few outstanding, and hopefully we'll get these in soon.

We are buyers of performing, sub/re performing and non performing notes on a nationwide basis.