As far as following up with the owners would you recommend to go and talk to them directly or regularly send them flyers and marketing materials (recently sold brochures, market reports etc...) to keep in touch with them? 

In their marketing material, they refer to the “guaranteed rent” program as “Immediate cash flow”.

When I'm home on the weekend, I'll look through my materials to see if the links, etc are still valid and see what I can post here.

You should have or be able to obtain receipts for any and all materials you bought to do the repairs you performed yourself.  

Any suggestions on reading materials, resources, or interest in meeting up for a cup of coffee to share wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

If you have nothing to bring to the table you will find it difficult I always tell folks in this situation is to simply go on e bay you can buy every single guru's written materials and tapes for 20 to 50 bucks each guru.. listen to all of those read them all.. then slice and dice and see what fits your personality.no one ever said real estate is easy.. takes no money and will just fall in your lap.. its the polar opposite.. 

There is a house near one of my rent houses and the owner used vinyl flooring for fence material.

Whatever is important to you. its probably helpful if you give an overview of what you are doing with the property so they can recommend materials and work. 4.

Just to let you know an additional thing you need to do is to keep some of the material used in case you have a repair later and using the same material assures you on the color whether it is still available or not.You are going to love this next statement. 

Varying grades and material thickness.