I used to buy alot of salvage vehicles from insurance auctions to ship to Oz, and my daily drivers all came from there since they were deals, and was never a big deal registering them.
My current truck (an '02) came from an auction when it was under 2 years old and I got a great deal on it...was just a theft recovery deal.
Think my SS 'vert I have now is one of the few late models I have had that are clean title, out of the paper sort of cars

Oh, and your DMV can probably give you a list (they do here at least) of local places to have the brake/light test done