You could add shelves with/or a breakfast bar along the empty wall to give it completeness and more functional space and modern look and maybe add lights over the L that makes the room barrier.Since you have water running to that laundry room see if you can put a quarter bath in there along with the washer/dryer.

With plenty (90 days or more with an initial "head's up") of notice, I first "non-renewed", then moved out the undesirables, then made sure the vacant units were clean and functional, not doing any upgrades. 

Its a legal function, not a lender function (who I don't believe has a fiduciary responsibility to you anyway). 

And as @Nathan G. mentioned, you can check local county court records or see if your local police or sheriff's department will do a check for you.

Listing agent told me they can upbid in court but it rarely happens.

or going the other route, will the court require to first fix the violations before i start to count the 3 months that it takes eviction here from what i have heard?

If the tenant did not give you access to the property and a chance to fix it then likely a judge will side with you on that issue in court.

I googled it and many people are saying the same thing so there must be something that I'm missing.Do you have your google voice number sending to a phone, do I remove that function maybe?

You'll also want to check local AND federal court records for judgments against the current owner.

Check facebook or the paper for community events or for church functions and civic associations.