If I buy a foreclosed home and borrow money to buy it, I am required to purchase title insurance. If the title is questioned then the title company does have some risk. If I pay cash and do not have title insurance then I do have some risk, but the risk is minimal.
The questioning of the title and the legality of the foreclosure would come from the previous homeowner. The prior home owner would have to remedy the deficiency even if the claim that the foreclosure was fraudulent was correct. In most cases the courts side with the current homeowner since he/she acted in good faith and the prior homeowner defaulted on the obligation. The problems with the title and mortgage chain of ownership are rectifiable - time consuming but not difficult.
There will not be free homes for people. People will have to pay their debts if they want to remain in the home and remedy past deficiencies if they want the home back and even then they might not get the home back. A homeowner might be able to negotiate some concessions from the bank, but these concessions are roughly equal to what the bank projects it will cost to go through the foreclosure process.
With regard to banks failing because their loan portfolio is worth very little - now that is a big issue and it seems like they should be allowed to fail. But the US will need a national bank or some sort of substitute otherwise the economy will fail with the big banks.
It will be interesting to see this play out.
zarco