@Elizabeth Martinez,  based on what I've read and listened to, for time efficiency like @Christian Kenworthy mentioned, advertising sounds like the route to go for general motivated sellers/high equity, not necessarily pre-foreclosures, and start small with volumes that you can handle in terms of incoming phone calls to screen, then put them on a schedule of repetition and follow up over several months.  

A repetitive circle lol.  

The daily repetition is key since with time you will get to know your target market as well as target renters.

They already know you, they are familiar with your offer and they trust you (because of the repetition, you demonstrate consistency, you are not a one flash in the pan and then never heard of again).

Hi All,I know a lot of people are turning to virtual assistants to offload some of the repetitive tasks that are taking up valuable time for real estate investors.I'm about to embark on a change of situation and will be living in Brazil for the next 12 months.

@Bob Bowling One more thing, I just re-read your posting (repetition is the mother of learning) and noted your comment about the average .8% RTV ratio in Hawaii and San Francisco.Based on the rents posted by @Kawika Burgess, the $1M property renting for $4,200/month should either see rent increases to $8K per month, a value decrease to $500K, or some combination of rent increases and decrease in value.Are you expecting rents in Hawaii to double?  

Hey there, These answers are going to sound repetitive, but please believe me that everything is pretty much local when you are just starting out investing. 

I also plan to train a VA to find and communicate with contractors and/or handymen in the future, in other words make phone calls for me.But whatever you use a VA for, if it's repetitive computer work, here are some tips I learned from experience: I recommend that you do a few steps yourself and take a video of it while you're doing it using a screen capture program such as Simple Screen Recorder.

Invest in good documents that you can use repetitive.  

Repetitive strain injuries from typing so much have led me to realize that coding is a young (wo)man's game.