Currently, the rental unit is empty so I just shut off the furnace and the water heater to conserve oil, and frankly because there's no need for hot water and heat (currently not freezing).  

If the water gets shut off due to non-payment they will not turn it back on until it is paid by the owner of the property & per the landlord tenant law you have to have water or you are not keeping it.

Our town is mostly Christian so I would be contacting a few churches, but there's also a Sikh gurdwara here who I would love to contact, and definitely my Pagan buddies would be finding out about it too.Any thoughts?

I would either shut up and pay the fine and fix the fence or be on a plane looking at my rentals.

Nothing says "shut up and take my money" like not having to put up hurricane shutters and having UPS power (read: air conditioning).

The SEC started going after iFunding, and ended up causing them to shut down (because they did not feel they could offer new loans, so they had no money to service loans).

I have seen people, making big investments in Anaheim and more recently in Palm Spring, being forced to shut down and sell.

There are a number of abandoned multifamily apartment communities in Memphis that were shut down due to the high crime and difficult tenant base.

(I would like to think the Title company would catch this but, if water is in Tenants names you need to ensure they have not racked up an unpaid balance, because this is the one utility that will not follow the Tenant and will instead stick to the property, like I said I'm sure the title company should catch this but never hurts to be sure otherwise you may be facing the option of paying an extremely high water bill or having the water shut off.) - This may also be a question for your Title company first.In your inspection contingency  you would like to review most of the above during that time, can it be provided for your review then?

I currently live in Falls Church VA and am a first time investor looking to break into a market.