The seller said they would be willing to talk about seller financing but would need some sort of down money, and I told them that was fine as long as we could come up with some numbers that work for both of us.

Yes, we are in business to make money, but our primary goal is to offer solutions to that seller and if you are prepared to present them more than one possible solution, even if that means being more creative, you will be able to convert more leads, than if you are sifting and sorting thru motivated leads, looking only for those that have a clear titles.

I know I need to run this like a business, and normally would hold them to the lease, but this is sort of a unique situation as you can tell.  

My understanding is you can get lists sorted by that as well.  

It's less financial and more psychological in nature, but I think it's sort of a simple way to make sure you're not spreading yourself too thin.

I tried getting Missouri's case.net to provide some sort of filter for eviction records but wasn't able to figure anything out unfortunately.  

Any RE attorney can set this sort of purchase up for you. 

You want to use some sort of MLS based comps which does mean getting a realtor involved. 

When I got off the phone with him, I looked up the property with the registry of deeds and found that it was some sort of holding company based out of Texas that was on the deed.   

My ventures into Real Estate had sort of a rocky start.