The emotional side of me is so angry that they damaged a house I put a lot of work and TLC into, and that between damage and lost rent, basically a year of profits from the house will be wiped out, but the logical side of me thinks I may be throwing good money at bad.

Try and separate emotion as best as you can from the situation.

I'm reading between the lines of your original post and for some reason I think there may be an emotional pull to this property.

Trust when I say it gets much deeper than a day late.

Emotions have no place in this game.That being said, if you want help on specific aspects, like lead gen, or networking, those would be good things to inquire about specifically...

HowBefore I dive deeper into the how, where, and why, let me give you a quick geography lesson.

When you see water spots, dig deeper!

If there have been a few months of late payments though, that definitely warrants having a deeper conversation with the current owner.If the owner doesn't know much about the cause of their tenant's late payment situation, go directly to the source and have a friendly conversation with the tenant and introduce yourself.  

So, the deeper analysis is what tells the story anyways.

I really want to jump into it as soon as possible but I know an emotional purchase is not smart.