Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Georgia

The tennants have finally left our home out of state. Of course the story has many variables. I will try to list some facts instead of rambling on. The home is in Georgia. The tenants resided in this home for greater than 10 years. For the most part we always got rent but there were multiple times late fees occurred and etc. We worked with tenants so much that we even agreed to accept their personal signed checks for a year at a time, and not deposit them until the 10th of every month. The tenant wished to buy this home. We signed a purchase agreement, also had in the contract that the event they stop their payments then the money they had paid toward the purchase would be forfeited. 8,000 was paid and then payments toward buying and the contract stopped. They still wished to rent. They signed new lease, they again had us deposit their checks the 10th of every month. Our lease was up Dec 2019. They chose not to sign a new lease, and we have chose to sell the home. They were sent certified mail in Oct 2018 that we intended to list the home by March 1st 2019. Their communication became more distant and after several attempts to counter negotiation prices for them to again buy the home we just asked that they please move out. We eventually had to file eviction papers with the court. At this time they quit sending checks for us to deposit, and were depositing rent after we contacted them to remind them it was the 10th and we had no rent yet. At this point they were direct depositing rent into our checking. We sent them multiple certified mail telling them that they needed to move. On court date the magestrate judge basically dismissed our case because the tenants had paid the rent for April , and it was currently April 28th. The judge said we should have sent the April rent back. Why?? , I guess because by law you can not do anything if they are "paid up" So we stopped direct deposit for May's rent. and reminding you we have no lease because they refused to sign new one, so we sent them certified letter increasing their rent basically double do by the20th of May.l So May 20th no contact from them, and yes we had no plan to accept rent we just needed them out to sale our home. So finally June 10th the house was empty. They took all appliances and all light fixtures throughout the home, inside and out. Both garage doors are damaged and dented beyond normal wear and tear. most door knobs are missing, and one door is even nailed shut with a 2x4 as it appears it was kicked in at some time. They did not leave the 4 garage door openers . Many more damages not mentioned. We have heard through the grapevine that they claim that they replaced the appliances and lights (even though they did not ask or let us know if they needed attention) and they said so they were theirs to take. May I mention they did not replcce them with our appliances that came with the house. They are also saying that the 8,ooo.00 they paid with the purchase contract they broke years ago should be more than enough to cover all this mentioned. So what is our best choice? We do not even live in Georgia, hank You in advance

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