For example, instead of the 401k investing in publicly trade shares of stock such as Netflix stock, the 401k purchases private shares in the 401k participant's C-corporation. 

They are held on the courthouse steps on the first Tuesday of every month, so it would be impossible to keep the random public from attending.  

The attorney on the show recommended creating trusts that managed LLC's, which somehow made the owner untraceable (because the owners of the trusts do not have to be recorded publicly, I think).

Please correct me if I am wrong but couldn't you offer them full price and have them pay to convert all the utilities to public after the closing?

However have in mind that the SEC is watching and pass everything you say especially publicly to your attorney first , just a suggestion.

the only advice i can give you is to keep checking with the county clerks office. anytime the bank takes the next step in foreclosure, there has to be a hearing and paperwork to go with it. this paperwork has to be filed with the clerks office and is free to the public to look at. sometimes, and this is a little known secret, banks just give up on a house. they weigh the cost of maintaining it for an extended period of time and legal fees along with it, verses the price they may get out of it in the end. the government puts a limit on how many foreclosures the bank can put back on the market in a year, so the banks are more likely to put the high dollar ones out there as opposed to the cheaper houses. who wouldn't?

Back than people didn't know about "Child Abuse", which what I was doing would be consider today.If there is anything that has contributed to my success in the real estate business is my consistent marketing, direct mail, formal written letters (not on yellow line paper), professionally written with references and credentials.I believe in active marketing like, Farming --- after I got my real estate license I would select a neighborhood and walk and talk to everyone I would meet, I would enter every business that was open to the public, "Excuse me, do you know anyone who would be interested in buying or selling real estate.

I am a bit concerned as to what I can and cannot say in the public domain.

I recommend this:  Put it in the Lease"The simplest way to avoid complication is to add specific language to rental agreements stipulating public sign display restrictions.

, or you mean one apartment in a building for rent maybe, and you want to rent it with several other people, that would be normal.Go to the campus housing office and ask about any rentals that they may know of for sale, or go find public records of evictions in the neighborhood, to locate landlords who may be fed up and might sell to you.