The folks you want to do business with put their name ahead of their money and, in my humble opinion, you should strive for the same.  

http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Setting up Keyword Alerts How to Use @Mentions on BiggerPockets 25 Tips for Real Estate SuccessBefore your 1st purchase, please ensure you visit the below link for some tips. http://www.realestate.com/advice/buying-your-first-investment-property/ eBookhttp://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/brandonatbp/file/real-estate-rewind-a-biggerpockets-community-book Blog http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/02/09/how-to-start-investing-real-estate-young/ Lastly, don't forget the podcasts, webinars, #askbp podcast and the blogs.

So the main missing thing is the in home visit.

If nothing else, it would save them from making a multi-hour round trip to visit a dud property.  

Looking forward on the much to learn ahead  

If you have not heard from the tenant in months and/or she has not paid rent in months, visit the property immediately, or designate a representative to do this for you. 

My question is should I go ahead and take care of the remaining repairs while it's listed?

Should I look ahead a certain amount of weeks on the court calendar and target those owners? 

Fast Forward to now and I am now studying back into everything again(bought all the bigger pockets books ) and I decided to go ahead and go after a Real Estate License before school started  back up in full swing.

First thing is to direct your renters to pay rent to you, not them as @Jerry W.points out.  2nd is to call a local knee breaker and give these idiots a visit.