I don’t think anybody disputes they will drop further.

We discovered, following the resolution of a conflict with one of our guests, our listing has disappeared from the listing page for our area.

In most cases, municipalities are expecting a large percentage of owners to not dispute their assessments, so getting an attorney involved almost certainly will get it reduced.

be careful with phrases like "non-refundable deposit" the word deposit implies it is refundable, which makes the phrase an oxymoron and opens you up to a tenant dispute. the phrasing, non-refundable fee would be better.also, I don't think it is a good idea to call something a pet deposit.

After reading a couple books, I made a resolution this year to research, learn, and hopefully buy our first rental property.

Fortunately, the original owner of the property still owned the surrounding property and was able to sort it all out.My guess is that there is something similar going on with this property and that there can be a resolution.

Once it is established that real estate Is Abandoned as a matter of law, -there can be no trespass because no one is claiming an interest that can be trespassed against.While trespass against the owner of record could be part of an Adverse Possession claim (as in fence line disputes) where the owner has no intent to abandon his/her interest in their Real Property. 

I am wondering if there has been any real solid resolution on this topic.

Especially if you are not buying as is you have the right and responsibility to your business to find some kind of resolution.

Auto-pay has issues that should be considered and it effect all service providers:1) Higher rate of NSF (with hassles an bank charges)2) Easier to dispute the charge and get the system to reverse the payment by lawWhen a tenant uses ACH and actively makes the payment each month in the interface, the issues stated above are eliminated almost 98% of the time.