I am sacrificing some return to fully automate my facility with just maintenance staff we are closing in January and am coming in with 10 percent down.

They aren't too bad if you automate things.As others have mentioned, reliable cleaners that do a good job are critical to your success.Changing regulations, saturation and a slow economy (like now) can cause you hardships.

That part is not automated or easy I expect.The other thing is perhaps figure out where cash buyers hang out...and get in front of them.

-We've pretty much automated our early month rent collections efforts, so we have a spike in activity mid-month when we have to decide to send eviction notices to attorneys for court dates.

I've had to explain it to prospective guests often enough that I've actually set up an automated message with pretty much this exact language @Nicole Heasley ; )

If it's just for answering calls and trying to filter spam, you could utilize a call tree type service (Click 1 for sales, 2 for leasing) That typically filters out a lot of the automated spam calls as they can't navigate the menu. 

Now that Podio has made it so that you have to effectively pay $120 per month for Globiflow, what are people doing to automate their marketing?

You just got an automated message that you account will be reviewed.

Just wanted to know if anyone had a non excel sheet based automated solution for collecting and maintaining COIs.

I like simple, automation, hands-off, less, no fees, etc.