Have your money ready to go - verifiable proof of funds letters and be really able to close in two weeks2.

You can verify if a permit was pulled before the work was started in most towns / cities by calling the building department of the town you live in. 

Don't go leaping into this thinking there is cash flow-verify!

But other info, like whether there's a mortgage on the property, can only be had by going to the clerk's office.Once you verify who owns the property, you will have to continue to play detective. 

I want an unbiased, local third party that can verify whether there's truly been some misunderstanding (e.g. he's senile, and/or someone intercepted his mail and forged the sale agreement), and barring those unlikely scenarios, might explain to the Seller the significance of having an executed agreement. 

I found the lawyer that wrote the legal description and he explained that these are categorized as "airspace condos" but couldn't verify the lendability on them.

The #1 lesson that I learned was the old adage "Trust but verify". 

I'll also encourage you to verify these on your own as well.LLC: 1.

If I am not the highest bidder, my bid may be automatically increased to $500 above the highest verifiable bid placed from a neutral party up to a maximum bid amount of $101,900."

Don't: Not vet inherited tenants/ask for info verifying payment especially during this time