Best beginning book for a buy and holder that I've found.  

The title company will show you as borrower and the seller as the lien holder but the first thing you need to do is pays a title company to run a title search and sees if there are any liens on the property and if the seller has a bank lien beware of the due on sales clause.

I have gone so far as to contact the mortgage holder to get their opinion as to their interest in the property.  

So my questions are:a.) what questions do I need to be asking of the ownersb.) how do I go about getting solid info on the property, re: liens etc ( I do know about the authorization of release for the bank/mortgage holder).

Few cup holders but a lot of fun."

That being said if you are looking at investing in a property I recommend if you're going to do an owner financing deal that the seller owns free and clear.If you are going to pursue properties where there is a current mortgage, I'd recommend AT MINIMUM having the cash needed to pay for the balance of the mortgage if mortgage holder calls the note.  

Does anyone know how a second mortgage holder comes to know that the borrower is going to be foreclosed on the first mortgage?

You can but requirements of the first lien holder may negate your ability to close the deal based on a second mortgage being done.

The bank will reportedly still accept a deposit if it's made by a non-account holder if they're depositing a money orders or check. 

Junior lien holders don't have a problem with BK as it takes the emotion out of the equation and puts it into the hands of the trustees and in this scenario, what's a BK gonna accomplish?