I usually will say who referred me to them and say that they are a friend, neighbor, family, etc and will then ask what their lead times usually are for work to be completed, how they communicate, are they comfortable working with me being out of state, how do they collect payment (terms and preferred method) and do they offer a business rate?

If they are borrowing 75-85% (putting down 0-10% of their money,) it’s virtually unsecured debt as you would never collect a dime during a foreclosure.

If it's a simple email list software to collect email addresses and send emails and automated campaigns to that list, and to manage that list of emails, something like convertkit.com or aweber are great for that. 

Going forward I’d prefer to do owner financing instead of collect rent .

And much less risk in terms of collections because you don't have to worry about evictions or damages (assuming your property management has the right coverage).And yes, you can easily point to the bust in 08 causing prices to drop or the covid rents coming back down as big changes. 

Nothing herein is legal advice.Effective July 1, 2024, California Civil Code section 1950.5 generally prohibits a landlord from collecting more than one month’s rent as security deposit, whether the rental is furnished or not.

You receive the utility bill and pay it, while collecting from the tenants.TENANT PAYS When the meters are separated per unit, make it a requirement of move in to have the tenant provide their utility account numbers to you so you know they are set up and not being billed to you. 

I was hoping to get some clarity on the rent collection functionality of the stessa/rentredi platform, versus hiring a property management company.

How many tenants would qualify for rentals if you couldn’t depend on them collecting minimum wage for their labor so they could pay rent?

The ACTS of offering to purchase, assigning or flipping a contract, and collecting a fee for such does NOT  in itself require a real estate license.