You were exactly right that she was not a motivated seller but I do still have open contact with her and can still contact an agent that I had only slightly communicated with in the past.

As Wes mentioned above, communicate clearly with your PM and set up a limited POA for someone you trust. 

You can advertise your vacancies, communicate with tenants, receive online payments, track maintenance requests, etc. 

Every company is going to operate a bit differently and you want to ensure that you are comfortable with their operations as well as their style of communication.No company is perfect but a great company will provide great communication to owners and tenants alike and be proactive in refining their systems so when the inevitable hiccups occur there is a plan of action to make corrections and grow stronger over time. 

Get right on it so they know your serious, and stay in close communication each step of the way so it doesn’t get away from you! 

Having a RE attorney work with the seller's RE attorney is not an issue and as long as the RE attorney is competent and communicative all should go well.But I'll still give some advice from what I've learned the hard way: if there are any contingencies such as repairs (usually discovered and agreed on after the inspection) make certain all repairs/contingencies are completed prior to closing - and literally go and check to make certain these repairs were actually done. 

It may be possible for a landlord to communicate via email (using Google translate to translate the emails) and use a translation app on their phone when meeting in person.

If you figure out finding off-market distressed properties remotely, then the rest is about effective delegation and all of the project management fundamentals (risk, scope, budget, communication, etc).

There were also complaints about alleged slow or nonexistent responses to email questions and communications.

:) We are looking to use a system that will help us manage direct mail, cold calling, mapping, and acquisition activity.We’ve looked at CRM’s but are considering something more advanced / flexible such as Podio.For those of you who aren’t systemizing their cold call interactions, managing deal flow, and tracking communication— would you be interested in doing this to streamline your business?