The example they give usually is that somebody has no equity and is in foreclosure so they Quit claim a deed to you, Then you contact the IRS to have the lien removed or released as long as you  can show there is no substantial equity.My question is this : Will the IRS work with you as a buyer of a property that has an IRS lien on it if you have NOT been given a deed to it  and don't own it yet?

You will survive. good underwriter looking at your tax returns will see you own the debt and the asset.. probably gets bounced.. this is what HML did pre 08 all of our loans went to buy and hold folks and we did rate and term refi.. but we were a true third party lender .. its was a great gig while it lasted my average turn on my loans was 92 days.. and the buyers not only had no money in the deal they got refi proceeds usually 5 to 8k a house and they would do 4 and a time.. now they were suppose to take the refi proceeds and put them in their reserve account.. but alas the reserve account ended up having Jets skis in them instead maybe a new car.. or that trip they wanted to take.. etc etc.. anything but where it was suppose to go.. 

Auctions are for experience cash buyers. 

are you referring to a motivate seller that would be interested in entering into a lease option with a tenant buyer?

The buyers were cash though and we had a good idea of interior condition from looking thru the windows. 

This gives out of state/remote buyers a much better idea on what they're looking at and eliminates the need to set up pointless walk-throughs with folks who aren't serious. 

So I have a deal where a lady has put a buyer under contract and she says she common law married to the decease guy.

I built / or should say I refurbed studs out a 4 bd then built a new 4 bed behind it.. last year and that sold for 1.250  buyer is renting it by the room to collage students.. that's quite popular there as well. not as profitable of course as the air bnb..  

You work for buyers instead of the sellers. 

As one of the larger multi-family lenders in the city, a great deal of my clients are 2-4unit buyers/owners....many of them being primary residence purchases taking the "house-hacking" angle.