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.

I had been pleasant all the way through this.I made some enquiries about something when I got back, and she bitched me out in email, and cc'd it to her entire office, I duly took the ***** down a peg or three, called her unprofessional and pointed out that even lawyers use capital letters when composing emails on an iPhone.

I will NEVER have to use any such mailings to any Attorney's ever in my future, I will just walk to the next office over and ask them if they have any leads; after I ask them how their family is doing after that awesome week up at the cottage.

One of my wife's uncles was in charge of one of the properties which is zoned for commercial/residential, it is a 1708 Sqf office space/small warehouse on .36 acre lot.Which with some research it can be split into 2 lots.He let the property go to the dump, needs a new metal roof, and gutted, replace plumbing/bathroom, replace electrical etc...Now my wife’s Aunt is in charge of the estate and she was the one who approached me.She said they will "sell" me the property for $30K (estimates from Real estate agent say property is worth $43-$53K in current condition) Which then I could clean the property up and try to resell with the improvements.Now if I did replace the roof make the inside look nice and clean the overgrown landscaping I was told (real estate agent) it could get about $60K, but there are back taxes and liens on the property as well.Plus closing cost for when I sell it, I have run the numbers and it seems that I would MAYBE make $3000-$9000 conservatively.But I am real concerned over the fact that it is used as an office/commercial, and wouldn't this limit buyers?