Everything is electronic so as long as they carry a license in the state you are purchasing, they will be able to help you regardless of the city you live in or are buying in.

They can be canceled by the tenant at any point as well.Money Orders/Cashiers Check: These are considered safer than personal checks because you need to use verified funds to purchase them, however, although it's harder they can still be canceled before you deposit them and they are a burden for the tenant to get and for you to electronically deposit through most bank apps, which means you have to take a trip to the bank. 

NOTICES: All notices under this lease must be in writing and are effective when hand-delivered, sent by mail, or sent by electronic transmission to (Do not insert an e-mail address or a fax number unless the party consents to receive notices under this lease at the e-mail address or fax number specified

And all of our applications are electronic so there's nothing to hand them. 

so we are considering the idea of collecting rent online using one of the various available websites out there. my questions are 1 - do you collect electronically or in person?

VA law requires you mail this regular US mail, unless your lease specifies otherwise,  If your lease allows electronic notifications, and most do, you can send the notice by e-mail.Feel free to PM or call me if you need help.  

We invoice tenants and they pay electronically and ACH deposits the funds automatically.

The clock starts when we deliver the lease to them (electronically these days).

I'm a 40-ish guy with a business and electronic engineering degree.

We then did electronic transfers from our business account to theirs for the payments which gives us a detailed history of the payments made.