In light of the nature if the issues, you should be able to convince the current custodian to release your account without any termination fees, since they clearly are incapable.  

This property has been consistently rented for the past seven years and we would like to keep it (thus the long term nature of it). 

The leap to being an investor was pretty natural for me as such.  

However, the one-time supplemental tax bill generated from your purchase (CA- not sure how it works in PA), may or may not be collected and paid by your lender.

In some jurisdictions {such has our own local one}  purchaser is able to request vacant delivery of the property under a limited set of circumstances: purchaser, or immediate family member, will be occupying the premises as their primary residence;purchaser intends to undertake significant renovations - the nature of which necessitates the property be empty {there is usually a corresponding condition that theses renovations must commence within X weeks/months of possession}purchaser intends to demolish the property.I do not know if California has exceptions allowing purchasers to break an existing lease, but there are lots of folks here who do (@K.

But now I'm starting to feel the need to understand the seemingly complex nature of all the RE options of financing and which path we go down.

I did not start out with much cash and while I have more of it now, I still retain the natural desire to save up. 

I'm in SW Littleton, Roxborough, where water is quite expensive.In this area, I'll bet average looks something like this monthly:$130 - water/sewage$60 - natural gas$120 - electricAgain, other areas may be more or less, and gas/electric are probably combined in most parts of the metro area.

In the wake of the recent tornadoes at northern Texas, i would like to know if there are strategies for landlords to protect against such natural disaster.

I am interested to see what happens in the area given the price of crude oil and natural gas.