I was recently "retired" by my company after an acquisition and decided to go full time as a technology consultant, helping businesses with their cloud/voice/data/telecom needs -- along with my desire to be a real estate investor. 

Zillow and other technology driven companies will eventually turn the Real Estate Agent into a dinosaur.

And (1) is facility with some technology, with (2) ability in dealing with prople, including in getting results out of employees, & (3) shrewdness in properly dealing with finance & money.

I would say any technology that you can implement to save time on some of the "time suck" tasks the better!

Some are quasi-governmental, others private, and still more pure governmental, but they are businesses with revenue streams, assets, etc) I find it exceedingly unlikely that they will accept failure and cessation of their proven and profitable business model at the hands of a technology that has existed sufficiently since the advent of webinars.  

Corporate ladder climbing was not my strong point so I started my own technology and consulting company about 17 years ago full time and never looked back.

However i would say bay area real estate is better poised then LA just because of the fact that I believe technology( software)  would drive future innovation in any field from medicine to cars and silicon valley continues to be the leader in software . last 10 years has proven that as well .

Can't quite wrap my head around this but heard of self storage facilities (smaller ones under 50k leaseable) being operated without an on site manager.  I don't know the details but I figure it involves punching in ac...

Also, do updates/renovations up front with high quality product, use technology to save time and effort from your staff.

Since I don't list/sell (I do property management and formerly designed RE technology systems) there are times I regret having a license.