Some providers have features that are designed to make it easier for IRA real estate investors: features like free online bill pay or the ability for your IRA’s renters to pay their rent electronically. 

It's always good to make it as easy as possible, and the biggest improvement I've made is going all electronic in terms of collecting rent.  

We provide them with an electronic copy of the bill each month and every three months we reconcile.If there is a deficit in the account we invoice them and payment is due with the following month's rent {this has only happened twice when we carried the electricity and natural gas and there was a very cold winter ... normally we set the monthly utility contribution high enough this does no occur}.  

We are also working on new arrangements with a startup car-share; for electronic parking passes; discounts at neighbourhood restaurants; and a reduced rental rate on self-storage during the summer months for our student tenants.As @John K alluded with his fridge magnets, we provide all tenants with the following on move-in:a binder containing information on their home: the house rules, manuals for appliances, call lists for service providers, transit schedule, maps showing local amenities, coupons to local businesses;a cleaning caddy with a started supply of cleaning products, a toilet brush in each washroom, and a toilet plunger;an emergency call list velcro'd on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door.

Rent is due first or before the first of the month or they get hit with a late penalty.In today's day and age of electronic payments there's no excuses to not paying on time.  

Our business uses Echosign for electronic signatures.

The trend is for software to be delivered electronically and not in a package of atoms.  

This is cheaper, at least in the short run, than user-rekeyable locks from Kwikset, Schlage and possibly other manufacturers.For more money, you could invest in electronic keypad locks and even some that allow remote control.

They take the 9V batteries out of their smoke detectors to use in their latest electronic toy.

Once I receive any documents via email I will print them out for our hardcopy filing system and put them in our electronic filing system which we share via dropbox.