To check if they have liens, you can take it to your local title company but what happens if there’s a lot of properties you want to invest in, since it can cost some money to check the liens on the property, is there a cheaper way to verify this information so that you don’t purchase a 20,000 home with a 60,000 lien on it?

Get together with a mortgage broker, they'll be able to give you all your options and get you pre-approved so you'll know exactly what you can do.

I was a mortgage broker for many years long ago and that sounds like what you should be doing. 

That said, I’d rather have a month or two overlapnof rent and a mortgage if I found a great deal, than missing out because I didn’t want the payments to over lap.

PLEASE NOTE I'M ONLY INTERESTED IN 1-4 unit properties7. there is an "Old Pearland" where cheaper properties exist. 

She doesn't have any recent rental history either, as she lives in Indiana on a farm and says her husband pays the mortgage. 

I'm currently communicating with a local large bank, hoping to get a loan to payoff a current terrible mortgage on my house, rehab, and probably flip. 

It seems they check for visual, electrical, moisture, mold and gas.If it really is that simple than soft inspections can be done much cheaper and faster and more often by a trusted but non - certified joint venture partner.While I'm in the area I can do a demographic, a title, and a infrastructure forecast search.

I am not big on regular office because in down cycles people go to running the office out of their home or move to cheaper warehouse space for rent per sq ft.You could put the property under contract with a long due diligence if seller will allow it for little to no non-refundable earnest money.

I plan on retiring in a few years but by "retire" I mean my passive income has replaced my W2 income + benefits and I am in my dream home already and have tapped out all the conventional mortgages I can get.