They only want to do the bare minimum to keep places occupied, collect and distribute payments, and send out their preferred repair people.

However I’m not ignorant to the fact that there is a lot out there just collecting money and not providing much. 

I looked into the maintenance option years back to discover a trend of:  apx. 8% monthly fee which only included rent collection (everything else from maintenance to turnovers etc, extra, and poor reputation on repairs.)

For example, you might leave $10,000–$25,000 in the deal, end up with a $3,000 monthly payment, and only collect $3,000 (or slightly less) in rent.This applies to my local market and primarily to Class B or higher real estate.You’re better off finding a solid property that needs only light cosmetic work (e.g., paint, flooring, or perhaps a kitchen or bathroom remodel), buying it at a decent discount, and putting down at least 25%.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Nothing points to this better than claiming the property cash flows $1,000/m relying on rent collection and debt service/taxes/insurance while responding to my question about other operating expenses/reserves with:  "repairs will come and we will fix, but that's why we do our due diligence before we buy so we aren't walking into major repairs".  

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Very difficult to identify 2% deals in areas where you can consistently collect rent with any kind of predictability. 

If you’re taking deposits, you can collect them through the same platform or even through PayPal.

Collecting rents is an art and a science.What you should depends on where they are with their late rents.