Hello and welcome to this site Brandon!  

This site is an invaluable source of information.

Does the owner live on-site?

Once I have that information, I usually will go over to the property appraisers site to get the owners information and then ride by the property to see if it is vacant. 

If you are going to buy a house at the sheriff’s sale, you must perform some due diligence and verify if there are any liens on the property.

Flipping can be difficult and people who have flipped at least one time before perform significantly better than first-timers.

whatever you stance on that, it has created a situation where we (americans) look down on factory built homes.Without the artificial input I believe we would have giant , efficient, factories in every city pumping out modular homes, that are green, affordable and accepted as "normal" and probably cost as much as a nice new truck.If you have ever built a new home, the insanity of "site built" becomes apparent as the waste of materials and man hours can be staggering.

In most cases They cannot and should not pay without getting a W-9 because they are responsible for all expenses to the owner. this is a weird situation because you actually didn’t perform the service.

Search the owner name, work backwards thru property appraiser/clerk if court site.

Here's a helpful resource:https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/SERVANIMALS_NTCFHEO2013-01.PDF