@Alex Kvasnikov Your success story is inspiring to people with and without foreclosures on their records trying to find a decent deal.

You find the mortgage amount in the land records or if you do it very large scale you can subscribe to various companies that supply that data. 

This business is new and has no track record or sales.

If the house is listed the seller will have a contract with the agent that will says a commission is payable at the introduction of a ready, willing and able buyer regardless of agent involvement.In any event, you could look up the tax record either online or at the register of deeds to find the name of the seller.

Of course, I agree with the others that if this is a listed property then the seller has a contract with the agent that forbids such "off the record" negotiations.That said, to answer the original question: look up the county tax records (most are online these days) using the property address.  

I am going to the recorders office; I want to know have they been in default before, do they have any liens, etc.

I assume that puts the rehab costs around 25-30k.My next steps are to research the property records in the court house.

Public records. 

The records are better and you are not running into as much wheeling and dealing like in MF buildings.

You will have a hard time doing this without a track record, and so you will be charging them a small fee to teach them.Joe Gore