It was their prior excuse for being nonresponsive and you let them know that is not an excuse.

--reach out and thank them upon getting the booking and ask if they have any questions--send a "Welcome" email or automated message during the week prior to arrival--reach out the day after arrival to ask how everything was the first night and ask if there is anything that the property needs--reach out at the end of the stay (that morning or within 24 hours) and ask how everything was, anything to improve, anything to add to the house and then offer an incentive for returning guests.My 2 cents,Mike Absolutely stay in your place as Mike said.You will see things the cleaners will never let you know about.We stayed in our PF will putting up the Christmas decorations and found a cracked plastic shelf in the fridge. 

So when I'm reviewing screening reports for my rentals, I like to find out the story behind an eviction - I've had good tenants with evictions on their records who never bothered to expunge their eviction from the record when they had a prior vindictive landlord (yes, such landlords do exist and give the rest of us a bad name). 

Also, do you have pictures showing EACH AND EVERY window handle prior to move-in?

You are also looking at your desired closing date and determining how much time the appraiser needs and anything else required prior to closing. 

I bought a business where the prior owner had it in an S-Corp, the S-Corp and he was sued personally for three million.

And even here, you still need to be "active" to research who you are lending your $$ to, and due diligence on the deal itself prior to investing your money.

We are fair housing compliant regarding animals.Our tenants’ safety and the peaceful enjoyment of their home is important to us, so we do a credit/criminal background check on all applicants aged 18+, as well as employment and prior landlord verifications.

In light of that did the developers wind up getting a pretty decent deal out of this after they took a big risk on a property with crazy restrictive zoning and no clear path forward prior to purchase?

It's not normal to do it prior to an accepted offer.