@Don KonipolI view these trends as both things that people are participating in AND things that are being done to them.Silicon Valley hires the best and brightest to make phones, social media, games and apps addictive. 

Yes, I feel that directly owned single-family rentals are really a business and not a passive investment.There are a lot of things that can be done to automate it like taking rent over the Internet, using Zillow and other apps to bring in new potential renters, etcBut others require manual labor.

Every system you try will have flaws, or you may salivate over a feature that appears in other software.Some familiar names are mentioned frequently: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.I recommend conducting thorough research on each app online to understand their offerings, pricing, etc.

Downloaded the app. 

The website is archaic, the app is even worse! 

I'm pretty new to real estate investing and have been using a manual texting app that just recently starting blocking me, so I'm looking for something more automated that knows how to circumvent / comply with the latest laws, without having to worry about downtime potential. 

If you want to do postcards, DealMachine has a way that you can send post cards directly from the app/site.

If I were you, I would do driving for dollars and use the money to buy the deal machine app and mojo dialer and coke call your leads. 

Are you able to use photoshop or an app to add some keywords to your pics.

@Sam Peterson You can utilize different online companies (web, phone apps, etc.) for this but if you're new to REI you could gain traction by making your own.