I hear ya I once bought a van for real cheap had a lean against it from a bank that was out of business talk about a hassle! I also bought a camber trailer that had never been registered at all it was like a 1970 I had the cops come out and find the vin number and run it fortunately it wasn't hot LOL! If I wanted to title that thing I would have to do what's called a bonded title. It's a real pain in the arse: http://www.txdmv.gov/vehicles/titles/bonded.htm