Should I check to determine if they have tax liens; then send letters to the owners on record, indicating I would like to purchase? 

As a beginner, if I am going into something there needs to be a track record of good customer service and established history of returns. 

Hey BP As a new investor looking to operate my own multifamily deals, which is the better path to gaining experience and track record, doing my own small multifamily deals (5-10 unit deals)?

For instance, I did a parcel split recently in Pinellas County that took about one month to get ready submit to the county appraiser's office, one week to get approved (incredibly fast and smooth because all the necessary prep work and staff discussions were done in advance), and then one more month to be fully updated and reflected in county records; the approval noted the parcels resulting from the split met the minimum zoning requirements and could be considered buildable parcels, and imposed a restriction that any subsequent splits would require full subdivision site plan and platting.

The challenge will likely be obtaining bank financing without a track record in the LLC name.  

Get copies of the master insurance policy, CCR's, any recorded lawsuits, budget, bylaws, the count of owners vs non owners and I can give you some names

Look up the tax records for the property from the tax assessors website.

Depending on the website you can run a search for sales on four family properties as far back as their records go.You could also pay for a lists via website's like list source.

I also don't want to spend a lot of money on sending and receiving payments.With an added bonus, are there any programs that can do all of the above AND report to the credit bureaus to help my tenants build their credit history and will record late payments if they miss them?

For those without MLS access, Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, and Realtor.com should get you the info you are seeking unless you live in a non-disclosure state, as home sale price is not public record in such states.