How do you automate your buy and hold rental business?

[Brendan M.]

Hey guys, 

I'll soon be closing on another building and will be bringing up my unit count to 8 which I'll be managing. I've looked around the forums and haven't really found a comprehensive list of how other investors automate their business as to free up their time as much as possible. I imagine this is the goal for many.  

Since I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary of closing on my first property, I thought it might be useful to look back on how I've managed my properties. I definitely need to improve as I'd like to scale and want to start early so it's not a PITA later. I've gotten most of these from @Brie Schmidt but here are some areas below that I'm interested in learning more about:

1) Filling vacant units - I use an email template that asks for all pertinent information. I then do open house showings which limit my time invested and create some competition. I use rentalapplication.net, then Transunion Smart move for criminal/credit background check. 

2) Rent Collection - I give the option of collecting rent via Chase QP, Venmo, Paypal, or Cozy.co. All my tenants have used Chase QP so far. 

3) Accounting - I use one Chase bank account. I've paid for expenses/upgrades with my personal CC and kept track through Excel. I have Quicken which I believe I'll use more this year but curious on how to scale this properly. 

4) Tenant Reminders - Don't currently do this since I live in the building. 

5) Communication - I have email/letter templates from simple lease renewal reminders to a welcome letter for new residents reminding them of policies, procedures, and provides helpful info

6) Repairs/maintenance - This is not automated at all. I'll occasionally check in with tenants to make sure everything is running properly. I don't have a calendar of when I should be doing routine maintenance however. 

If anyone has additional ways or tools they use that help them, I'd be happy to hear it. 

Brendan