If the extra income stream is all you care about, it would be easy to play with the numbers and negotiate a deal with an alarm company to get less (or no) money upfront and instead agree on a lower monitoring rate.The numbers make more sense with the higher volume of properties and obviously the situation depends on where your properties are located (A, B, C, or D class neighborhoods, etc.).

I really want to get sub meters in and monitor them monthly, but I don't want to have to drive to the units to check the meters every month or three.  

And, for the most part, the goal of those investors is simply to find a stable and safe economy to park that money in.Makes me think it might be wise to monitor and study the SF market, as it very well could be a good indicator of what is to come elsewhere.

Toilets should be monitored when you inspect the apartment for smoke alarms etc.  

I do this to make sure it gets paid, and I can monitor to make sure the tenant pays me.

Then I use the reminders app to set up re-occuring calendar events to call people. 

That's not a knock on their software, but more of a "I don't know what to use it for".....which would probably apply to all types of software.I'm new, so I may change my mind, but I'm not sure what I need to monitor that a simple excel spreadsheet can't handle.

He probably would be staying there anyway and it is hard to monitor who is living there rather than visiting. 

You also do not have to take off from work to monitor contractors. 

My main concern is monitoring the exterior property while the property is vacant.