Sign the P&S and work with a Loan Officer (LO)2.

One way is to see if the County Recorder's or Register of Deeds Office where the property is has an online records search system.

If your into eating out Fletcher place was listed number 9 in this article about the hot foodie areas across the country. https://www.zagat.com/b/10-hot-food-neighborhoods-...The gym that my wife and I go to is across the street and our office is about 3 or 4 blocks east, also on Virginia ave.  

The sheriffs office serves the papers.Most times the tenant won't come and then you're served with a writ to evict them a few days later.  

@Scott Johnson  real estate is  real estate... no matter if its land or inproved1. you can go to any office depot and look at the legal documents there. 

My wife @Ashley Mullin 's first property management office was in the right side of that duplex!  

Finally the buy agreed to pay her the 5k and when they showed up at the title office the seller demanded 10k.  

Now I can make that decision from my office and others like it. - this one of possibly thousands of small mechanical steps that go into the decision making process during renovation and flip projects.

2) How do I know I am indeed registered as a lien holder ( I understand I need to get hold of the trust deed from the County Recorders' office.

I have a 4 storey commercial office building in another country and 2 storeys out of 4 storeys were vacant.We had 2 sub meters installed, whatever the electricity bill came from authority, we would look at the sub meter readings and divide accordingly.