I've thought of two stumbling blocks that I might run into in buying Texas tax deeds. I'm concerned about buying single family residential properties that have people living in them, and I'm concerned about the 'Texas mold crisis' that I've been reading about. Here are my questions, which I'll break up into two sections:

Occupied single family residence questions...

1. My clear objective in buying Texas tax deeds would be to sell unredeemed properties as soon as possible. To this end I imagine it would be a problem if single family residences that I bought were occupied by the former owner, or by a tenant. I don't want to have to evict people, but I imagine I would probably have to if I wanted to make a single family residence very sellable. How often do you come across occupied residences up for auction? Is it common, or is it rare?

2. Optimally, I'd like to avoid buying deeds to occupied single family residences alltogether. Aside from the obvious ways of checking to see if someone is living in the property (cars in the driveway, lights on, knocking on the door and seeing if someone answers, etc), are there other ways of finding out if the property is occupied?

3. How have you handled occupied unredeemed tax deed properties that you wanted to sell? Is there anything else that I should know about this kind of a situation?

Mold problem questions...

4. From what I've read, it sounds like the Texas mold problem might possibly make investing in Texas tax deeds more difficult. How has the 'mold crisis' impacted investing and profiting from Texas tax deeds?

5. If toxic mold is a concern, how do you inspect for it during your due dilligence if you can't get inside the house? Are there available indicators that make a property more or less likely to have toxic mold?

7. I understand that home owner's insurance rates are skyrocketing because of the mold problem. How much money should I expect to pay for insurance nowadays, relative to the appraised value of the property? Given my intentions of quickly selling unredeemed properties, is it absolutely necessary to get homeowner's insurance for tax deeds won at auction?

8. While we're on the subject, are there any other forms of insurance that I'll need to buy if a win a property deed at auction?

9. Let's say that an unredeemed tax deed house you win at auction is infected with mold, or has some other problem that makes it unsellable. How do you relinquish unsellable property so that you don't have to pay taxes on it indefinitely?

10. I recognize that the mold problem may have been blown way out of proportion by the media, but I want to make sure I cover all my bases. Is the situation serious enough that it warrents concentrating on auctions in dryer areas of the state, ie west of the major metropolian centers?

Again, thanks in advance for taking the time to read through my questions and answer them!