Ironically, the area just around the downtown is not a good area.  

Ironically, I love talking and meeting new people and building relationships.

Cast iron pipes corrode from the inside out, and they give no notice they're going to fail.

This is truly ironic, I see you are located in Northern Virginia.  

We are having reasonable success with direct mail, but it's a time-consuming process that also takes lots of patience...years, to be exact.

I did try consumers, ECCU (had account there) and Advia and was told by all that I needed to wait at least a year. 

Make a list of 20 questions and start consuming as much info as possible so I could be ready to dominate my area. 

When I started I had some consumer debt, but not a car loan.  

Ironically, the house gets mail and the same tenant has been there for years.My second concern is in regards to writing up the contract.

there are a number of leases that you could look into that meet the "consumer contract plain language" required by Pennsylvania law (mentioned above by @David Krulac); among those, you want to find one that is as landlord friendly as you can get.