You can usually find the owner of a property through tax records and/or the county deed register.

Banks usually like cookie cutter mortgages so find someone that knows how to work creatively.Consider a private mortgage. 

When it gets to this point it is usually better to either (a) not renew the lease or (b) introduce a new property manager and start a fresh relationship.    

Once a few people start flipping in an area, it usually isn't long before others get in.

There aren't a ton of multi-family properties in my area and if there are, they are usually in sketchy parts of town.

If you have one of the major financial institutions (Fidelity, Schwab, Merryl Lynch, Wells Fargo, etc.) setup your plan then they as custodian will limit your investment choices to that of their offerings, usually stocks, mutual funds and bonds.

And then have a separate policy just for liability.That would normally make no sense because it's usually cheaper to bundle things. 

Unless the current owner pulls out statements showing their balance to you and/or unless the trustee has published the bid amount (Which is usually the total debt owed or a formula of the total debt owed), you won't know what's owed.

Our properties are inspected by code enforcement at least every 5 years (Usually every 3) so it keeps us inline as well as gives us a level playing field.

Regrettably there is usually a notable lack of first person proof to support their position.