You could shop around, but the lower price may not be significant enough for the time and effort you will expend.  

I plan on taking the real estate class next year to expend my knowledge.

You may have to find new ways or expend more energy or keep your attention on these properties over time patiently to come up with an answer/method, and from personal experience, people can sometimes be slow to respond if you have sent a letter etc.Keep trying and thinking outside the box and you will find a way!!

@Josh Caldwell is correct that you need to remain agile enough to move quickly, but you also need to exercise the patience not to expend your energy tilting at windmills.  

This is a great site to expend your knowledge on RE!

You need to enter into a JV, or some sort of partnership...one where you have a skill that can be utilized, even if it's something like time expended searching for properties.  

By turning it off when they leave, they are expending more energy trying to bring the house back down to temperature, once they turn it back on.

If the attorney says they have no case, then you need to decide how much time/effort/money you are willing to expend to fight. 

We don't really have the expendable income to make a large purchase right now, which makes it hard for me but I have seen so many times purchasing a rental property for $0 money down.

Parking and such probably.At least learned early before a bunch of time and effort (and dreaming) expended!