Usually they promise automatic acceptance, no payments for 90 days. etc.  

Perform the same task in each app to ensure a fair comparison.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.Run a credit/screening report on yourself.Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, and attach a fake invoice.Enter charges to the tenant's ledger.Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.Sign documents electronically.Run owner reports.After testing a few apps, one should clearly stand out.

You go to one of the nice new automatic washes with the free vacuum cleaners at the end.   

As another mentioned about finding a better rate with the previous owners company, gone are the days of just automatically renewing insurance and a good syndicator should be shopping around for the best coverage/premium atleast twice a year.

Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.

So not automatic at birth, but damn near close to it.  

all good options, all higher risk, and in no way are they automatic cash flow right now. 

My best piece of advice is to set up systems (property management service and automatic messaging).

So, if they push 100% of their payroll to the heloc, only drawing back what they need to pay other bills twice a month, the loan earns less interest, automatically pays the payment, and by default every other dollars goes to principle. 

While a low fund isn't an automatic red flag, it's definitely something to look deeper into.