I certainly would do more to try to collect.

We are looking to hold onto this property for the long haul to collect rent for decades.

How/ what systems are other using to take application, collect application fee payment, and run the background/ credit check report?

The county is going to be the one with the information, other lists may exist but the county is responsible for collecting the taxes so they should be the most accurate

They got better tenants, dealt with all the leases and advertising, collected the rents, and handled the problems so we didn't get the 3am phone calls.

Maybe a good property manager could take all that burden off you, and you could just collect checks.

Leases generally go with the tenant but if they owe rent to the previous landlord he will have to take them to court to collect. 

@Patrick Britton I think you will find this varies everywhere...all my assumptions on our Inn were at 30% occupancy...if it performs at 70%, we'll be golden...There is a site called Air DNA that has this data for your area...paid of course, but good user interface for sure.

Depending on what lender you use they can consider the rental income that you will be collecting in the equation for how much of a loan you would qualify for.

We learned to get feedback investors who tend to like trendy areas rather than what we think is a good investment, or areas that haven't showed up on the collective radar yet.