I am just getting started as a landlord, but came from an IT and accounting background, so I embrace technology.  

Very impressive.It sounds ike it has ended up being as good as it could get for you.It sounds like you know what you are doing and you are going to go the extra mile and do what ever the extra work and sub contracting is  needed  to come out whole and  with some extra moneyNothing wrong with that and there is a lot right with it.You have embraced the extra job of monitoring this and sub contracting it and you are entiteled to come out of this  smelling like a rose.Good luck to you

In general, the real estate industry has not embraced new technology, so most ideas are good, as there may be no tech solution at all for many things.

At the moment, you've chosen to dislike it, while the rest of the world embraces it. 

Any side benefits are simply by happenstance.For me being able to embrace that there is no "meaning to life" has allowed me to grow to the point of being without guilt, without sin and free to do as I please for no other reason than it pleases me.

You can dehydrate food and store it for a year easily - I buy fruits and veggies when they're past prime for cheap from local stores, dry my own garden produce, and make jerky and other treats healthier and for far less than you pay pre-made.

Moreover, the entire U.S. nation was embracing acquiring as much debt as possible.

Nothing wrong with it, I ve always wondered why.I m embracing my journey and wish I could grow faster but I need to take it one step at a time.

Call me naive (I'm not a real estate investor and probably never will be; my interest is from a business model and value creation standpoint), but it seems to me that embracing a major paradigm shift away from wholesaling in favor of options could bring more discipline, fairness, and respectability to the process.Let me try to explain using your example. 

No, I'm planning to embrace the grind and work like no one else to one day  be worth as much as no one else. $800 will hopeful be like buying a bottle of water one day.I know man, STRs are a great solution to this problem but California in general is starting to be a hard place to live with taxes and limited options.