These spirited debates often get out of control very fast and take a lot to moderate to either stop the topic all together or get things back on track.

If so it may be easier to track them down.

The second school of thought is to open one bank account within your 401K, roll all the money into the account, then use ledger entries to keep track of everything (this is how mutual fund companies do it.)

The quality of your deal and your track record will dictate the structure.

You have no idea who owns them, if they are owner-occupied, have renters, vacant, whatever, nor do you know if the owner has any equity, etc. so it can take TIME to track down all that stuff.

You must consider child support that has had a track record of being paid as ordered by a court.

First is to go to the County Recorder's office (not the court records) and they should have a search capability for their database of recorded NOD's.

In this situation, the offer has been submitted by email at 10K over list price.5 days after initially emailing the listing agent, she still has not repsonded.After calling her all day, every day, she still does not answer her phone.When you call her office, they direct you to simply call her mobile.Follow up emails to her with tracking on them, go unopened.As I'm overseas and unable to physically wait in her office for her to turn up (assuming she's still alive), how would one go about contacting the agent and trying to buy the house?

While researching I noticed several recent reviews on Fidelity's Self-Employed 401K plan where clients have stated having to mail paper checks monthly for their contributions and the lack of online or ACH transfer capabilities. 

@Anna Smith to get back on track..yes..lease options are a great and easy way to get involved in RE.And never move to Canada...