Contacting tenants

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Seems like many of you here advocate presenting yourself as the "property manager" rather than the "owner" of properties that you self manage. I'd like to begin doing that... for those who do so, what is your primary manner of contact with your tenants? E-mail, phone? If you use e-mail, do you use your personal e-mail account?

In general, I think phone is easier and more effective. But, I also like e-mail because you have a paper trail in case you need to refer back to it.