What are the legal steps to buying a abandoned home.
The owner and his family left out in the middle of the night the neighbors told me there has not been anyone on the property in three months. I have tried to contact the family/owners for the last month and two weeks. Now I want to know from a legal stand point what can I do to get this house. I went inside it today. The neighborhood kids broke in to the house and stole some property from the owners. The owners left the house in poor condition however,it is worse now then ever.

Okay, if the taxes are paid for this year and you can't aford to buy off the auction how do you find out what bank has the mortgage on the abandoned home?

Mortgages I believe are public record so you might want to start looking there. You might want to check public record anyway most people that abandon a house don't own it normally they are renters and the landlord just hasn't figured out that the place is empty yet.