Is paying a title company to do this research the best method?

I'm searching for ideas on ways to buy more properties by coming up with lower down payments faster or dealing with alternate financing methods.

Free and clear.Property titled in name of Mary Smith only, a married woman.Mary dies, husband receives a life estate, mother's natural children from previous husband inherit the "Remainder".Husband, who has a life estate, accumulates $150k in IRS liens.Do the IRS liens attach to the property in any way?

UNITED STATES TREASURY BEGINS CRACK DOWN ON MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH HIGH END RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE In an effort to combat money laundering in the real estate sector, The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen), a bureau of The United States Treasury Department, has issued Geographic Targeting Orders (GTO) that will temporarily require title insurance companies to identify the names and social security numbers of the natural persons behind LLC's and other opaque structures that are used as shell companies to purchase high end residential real estate.Reporting will be required on "All Cash" purchases of residential properties that exceed $3,000,000 in Manhattan and $1,000,000 in Miami-Dade County.

Oh, and the fines --  not good.Sounds like you are mixing with too many competitors.Go underground, deal with only sellers who need to sell.Increase your margins of profits.Tax sale poaching...... a method to find the equities.  

The methods described above are ways to obtain the funds that you invested into the property in order to get it ready for sale, but they also create debt and are not truly paying you back. 

I know many of you experienced folks probably have systems to where this is second nature.

I'm looking to meet people in the area that are in this business network with and who are open to bounce ideas off of.Additionally I'm looking for methods and guidance from others on how I can locate "quality" rental properties without paying retail rates.  

Generally, paying an attorney to handle the loan docs, title review, things of that nature that we can't recoup if the deal doesn't close. 

Also, what methods are you using to finding off market deals?