For example, when I scheduled an appliance repair, I don't want to have to go searching for a photo of the appliance to read what model it is or hunting in a physical file to find the receipt. 

@Mario A Garza  If you are looking for physically distressed properties you might want to also consider taking a look at recent code violations issued in your area.

Location usually weighs in first, then size, quality and physical condition.

What I would like to ask is, what are my landlord rights, while waiting for the legal proceedings to complete itself, to protect my property from harm (damage caused by squatter, be it not turning on heat and causing all the pipes to freeze, to physically trashing the property, exposing it to water damage, to burning down the property), and protect me from squatter excessively using water and electricity?

My plan is to start by investing in one single home residence and rent it in year one to better help me get a hands on physical experience in what it is like to have rental property.

@Thomas Moran I have been in this boat before, purchased a value-add property knowing that in additional to physical distress, there were also issues with pre-existing tenants.

No physical condition existing on the property.  

After writing down and running through at least a dozen scenarios, I came to the conclusion that my days of working 80-100 hours/wk, on weekends, on holidays, for 4 months straight with not a single day off were over and that the best scenario for my relationship with my wife, for my physical health (sleep!)

One of my new tenants signed a lease without physically visiting the space (she was moving from out of state).

Physical trades and shuffling paper, these are jobs people understand getting paid for.