So I’m major appliance hunting and I’m finding a lot of the supply of bullet proof mechanical controlled appliances being replaced by electronic controlled appliances.

.   ;-)  I would use NOTHING but electronic/online payments.  

Sign up for one of the various electronic collection processes.  

Everything is done by phone, email and electronic file. 

Is collecting electronically enough if there were ever any issues?

I've heard that this could get tricky because if the tenant doesn't pay on time and then you take him/her to court, they could make a partial payment of the rent (say through an electronic transfer if an online method is offered to pay rent) before the court hearing and say that they paid rent. 

That is why I do most payments electronically now.

Or do u work it all electronically, relying on the info, communications and turn key of this?

By the time she replied and indicated she was willing to sell, I had already written it off as gone, so my response was to request that she consolidate all the information on the property into something electronic that I could then pull together into a convincing report for a lender...however then I indicated that my offer would be at least 200k below her outrageous asking price and of course she promptly backed out again.

Keeps a running tab on what tenants owe you, can run background and credit checks, and most of all let's your tenants pay electronically for free.