As a licensed salesperson, I cannot offer specific advice but refer you to credible resources. 

3c) Is there an easy way to search for whether or not a property has an IRS lien on it?

When used in the context of sales tax exemptions, it refers to exemptions that do not require a separate exemption document as proof of the exempt status.

Unless you have a crap ton of properties its fairly easy to just update the numbers once a month by logging in to your banks website and copying over the new principle balance figure. my excel simply shows property address my estimated value, the debt amount and calculates total equity. 

That worth a hundred dollars easy to the right person.However, if you just have an average unit, haven't had much interest and you rent is a hundred dollars more than the market then you will need to drop the price to be competitive.

It is a way to find current contact info and whereabouts from old/incomplete contacts and whereabouts.When used by a Real Estate professional "skip tracing" refers to obtaining phones numbers from name and address info of property owners. 

Very easy.

And the broker can discredit other, more honest brokers by saying those agents who suggest a lower list price just want an easy sale.However, if a Broker gives you a list price that's much higher than other brokers, usually it's a trick.

Taking from your 401k is the easy answer and unreversible.

Even if you fail you'll find that it isn't easy to find a deal and that may help you adjust your thinking about what a deal really is.