easy. Never enter a bidding war. If you show up and there's multiple cars outside, walk.

If the sellers realtor says "Bring chequebook with N signed cheques for $X amount" or such, walk away.

FWIW Canada is USA circa 2005-2006 right now.

Great answer.

The other approach is figure out what the house is worth to you. Figure out what your max is before you start bidding and don't go above it when the bidding starts.

Good approach. To elaborate, bid the lesser of your value or market value. Always. If you feel the least bit of pressure, or feel there's any shenanigans going on, walk away.

There'a always another house to come around.

Deeds are public record so you can always check to see if a single person/entity is buying up many properties in an area. Sites like whydontweownthis.com are making it easier to check as well.

Cool site, thanks for the link. Wish whydontweownthis.com covered the Peninsula/South Bay.

Who would I check in this case, the seller? What would I do with this information once I found it?