I'd bet the owner claimed the tenant acted without his knowledge or consent, just guessing on that. 

Home Inspections" giving anyone an opinion of property condition for a fee is what home inspectors do, again, regulated with license requirements.You mentioned flips, I'm betting that in your area, like mine, a homeowner is limited to what they can repair or construct in a residential area, now we are talking Contractors.

Is my best bet getting a private money loan and trying to buy a property that is at the auction?

For any outstanding mortgages, you want to see that a release and satisfaction has been recorded indicating that the mortgage has been paid off and released.If you're not familiar with the processes that I just referenced your best bet is going to be to hire a title company or a real estate attorney to assist you.

it maybe the kids I bailed out were Rich Dad poor dad deciples it was the first time I had ever heard of that book or that author.. this was 2005 ish... they ended up being my best team of bird dogs and door knockers I bet they acquired well over 100 sub too for us.this was in the day here in Orygun that it was legal to buy a sub too and keep the owner who was in foreclosure on as the tenant. 

If it's a single family then your best bet is probably going to be a FNMA or FMAC loan through a larger bank (like 5/3, Citi, Wells Fargo, etc.).Just do a Google search for "Lender in ________" and fill in the blank with your area.  

i have never sold a house without a realtor, so i'm not sure how that is done, but it seems to me if there was a way to let investors know of the property then i don't really need a realtor.i'm assuming these "we buy houses" signs are for investors, but i always heard those particular investors are really really really low bidders, like for people who are about to go into foreclosure or something.what is my best bet?

My future wife told me of deals she could get and frankly they seemed a better bet than buying a 911, so I was all in.And I've said before, would have lost less money on the 911, but I persisted, and bought more.

Lots of houses you can get into using other means I'd bet

The benefits of this house over that are 1) its a SFH rather than a duplex, so you aren't sharing a building/driveway with another family, 2) this house is a good chunk bigger in terms of SF, 3) the duplex has 2 outdoor parking spots, this has an attached 2 car garage, 4) the duplex has no real yard but the SFH has a nice sized fenced in back yard, 5) less traffic at night on the street (but still these are both on busy 4 lane streets).I'm assuming 1800 because I think that's a safe bet.