(they should but sometimes they don't know to) LOC's, HELOC's, 2nds, Hud Modification liens, mechanics liens, judgments, IRS liens, property tax liens, state tax liens, unemployment liens, child support liens and so on start with the notion of who filed first.

In Virginia, our State Corporation Commission website has an entity search feature that allows you to search any entity to see if their registration is current, expired, or non-existant.

The only feature in "settings" is to either completely turn all the notifications off or on, which is frustrating because there actually are threads I am vested in and would like to receive notifications on. 

Quasi- because some MLS features and benefits are not offered to Non-Realtors.  

I like the search features: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search

Meanwhile population has been growing for decades, unemployment is low, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure and development is going on and mortgage rates are low.

On the contrary, California, New York and even Illinois are seeing quite a bit of negative population migration trends at least for 2019.Always good to buy in markets with good population growth, lower than national average unemployment, strong employment job diversity, strong rental growth, etc.

I like the search features: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search

On the one side, there's a strong US economy that has driven the unemployment rate to record low levels, boosting disposable income, which makes a bullish case.Then, there are low mortgage rates and housing shortages, which add to the bullish sentiment."

There is certainly a lot of interesting thought leadership around how to reposition dead malls and lifestyle centers:https://www.cnu.org/publicsqua...https://knowledgestage.uli.org...Here are some key considerations if your strategy is to invest in depressed retail assets:Market Fundamentals:  Did the property lose tenants because of macro-trends affecting retail (e.g. category disruptions in apparel, department stores, big boxes, etc) or are the fundamentals of the local market weak (e.g. declining populations, stagnant economy, high unemployment, lowering HHIs, etc) — if it’s the latter, then you should investigate potential growth drivers for that market and the time horizon for them to come to fruition.Zoning: Is the property zoned for your intended re-use?