my word choice of 'respect' was poor. not only did i mean some awe at his boldness, but also more importantly: BUYER BEWARE in the real estate world, among others in the "land of the free".
When you put it that way, I must agree. I am in awe of his nerve.
The sad part is that it's actually pretty easy to do this sort of thing. Tax sales and foreclosures and the like are published in really obscure business journals. Sometimes the publisher is located far away from the property's location. There is no requirement, usually, to publish in a local journal.
I recall a case in Central California where a homeowners association wanted to get rid of someone, for the stated reason that he didn't fit in with the rest of the owners (it was a social class thing, old money vs. new money).
They voted in a new fee, and didn't tell the guy about it. After the fee was six months overdue, they published a foreclosure notice in a business journal in a small town in Northern California, over 100 miles away.
The president of the the homeowners association bought the poor guy's million dollar house for only $1500. There was nothing he could do about it except talk to the media and sully everybodies ruputations.