If there are relatives, most will not hire an attorney or personally respond to the quiet title action regarding a property that no one in their family has used for decades -except on occasion to satisfy their curiosity.  

Instead of spending all the time necessary to craft a custom application, I would use an existing process through a website like Zillow or many others or at least ask your real estate agent for a blank application.

I'm in NE Ohio and while I don't plan to completely "self-manage" (ie, do maintenance/cleaning/etc. myself) I do want these properties to be close enough that I can A) check them out personally when needed and potentially tinker/add improvements on occasion myself AND B) if they are vacant for a weekend, go and enjoy some R&R on short notice. 

I am certainly guilty of working with my residents on occasion but I do my best not to allow the delinquency to go past the 15th of the month as it’s usually hard for someone who’s paycheck to paycheck to get caught back up.

My wife and I have faced this decision on numerous occasions and we did the same thing I tell my clients to do: Calculate your Return on Equity.

From there you can dive into more advanced books, but if you don't have the building blocks, those may be overkill.Also consider buying Michael Blank's analyzer tool, comes with video training.Also consider buying David Toupin's analyzer tool, then find his walk-throughs on his youtube channel of how to use it.

I'm a nobody, but on the rare occasions a listing interests me, I'll let the LA know that families have priority. 

On a few occasions, the rent claimed by the listing agent did not match what the tenant stated they were paying.

I am going to collect much of your advice and make sheet out of it so i can give myself a pep talk when I'm getting that stomach churning feeling.Either I will have to rise to the occasion or I have to hire it out.  

Welcome (blank), sounds like you are doing pretty well with taking all the right steps.