"waiting for object"

Rather than lowering the global auto wait time out, you can lower the individual operation timeout Set Auto-Wait Timeout Dialog | TestComplete Documentation (smartbear.com) 

I suggest you experiment with it and set to one second, setting to zero or lower than one second can be problematic as it would fail immediately before the object have the chance of finish loading.

Hi, 

I would use FindChild to accomplish what you are describing.  There is no wait time applied when you use it.  If the child isn't found it returns a stub object with the Exists property set to False. 

There is a good example in the help topic on checking if something exists:  FindChild Method | TestComplete Documentation (smartbear.com)

You also don't need to change any of your project settings with this approach.

See https://support.smartbear.com/testcomplete/docs/app-objects/common-tasks/waiting-process-or-window-activation.html and use WaitNNN methods.

The "waiting for object" is defined by the number of seconds in Project Settings.