The county auditor website where we invest provides very good data if you know what to search for and how to manipulate the data you get. 

My local county auditor has a tax delinquent list.  

Currently I'm a full time auditor.

The auditors website in area I have been looking at real estate deals, has a transfer history and shows purchase price.  

I've technically been a member of BP since December 2016, but between the constant travel with my previous job (auditor) and planning our move, I haven't been active on the site... time to change that!

For instance, I am an auditor (CPA), and the mean salary for the L.A. metro area is $82,780 for May 2016 and the mean salary for the Minneapolis metro area is $72,550 for May 2016 (according to the Bureau of Labor Stats).

I skimmed through the IRS page for determining FMV here, but wow, is that a ton of info and seems like a group of both professional appraisers or a group of IRS auditors could individually disagree on what is the correct number to choose.  

I'm new to the game, and it sounds like my confusion is spreading to the people I'm interacting with at the title companies.As for how I found out about the previous tax lien purchase I was verifying that the property would in fact be in an upcoming tax sale with the treasurer's and auditor's office.

You may get a newbie person on phone support and even an auditor who isn't sure what they're doing.  

By the way, you should be talking to the auditor or treasurer.