I've spent about forty years digging through public records for a living. Started as a kid at a place called Auto Recovery Bureau on Telephone Road in Houston, finding people and property that didn't want to be found. These days I pull county records by hand for real estate folks — the liens, the back taxes, the breaks in a chain of title — and lay it all out before somebody signs.

I see the same thing over and over. A buyer does their homework on the house and skips the paper behind it. Then a federal tax lien, or an old mechanic's lien nobody released, or a deed that got recorded wrong, turns up after the gavel falls. By then it's their problem, not the seller's.

So, ask me anything about reading a property's records before you bid. What survives a foreclosure and what gets wiped. Auction title traps. How to spot a bad legal description. Where the county index quietly lies to you. I'll answer straight and I won't sell you a thing — I'd rather you learn to catch this stuff yourself.

I'm out of Phoenix, I'll be around this week. Fire away.