@Rose Costinski why don't you utilize the services of a professional property manager to collect rent, do an ACH for you, take care of maintenance 24/7, perform inspections etc...? 

If you need higher levels of technical training for a technical career it is different (sciences, engineering, medicine, etc.).I have a question for you: if you get a somewhat more difficult, but more applicable to RE degree (finance, law, accounting, etc.) - would that degree help you more than spending the additional time it requires on RE-specific activities?

Of course, sites like Cozy can take credit cards and ACH on behalf of you.

Common wisdom said that it's past it's heyday, but I'm finding nice pockets surrounded relative suburban stability that are just aching for some investor-inspired beautification. 

I'm patient and can what a few days for the ACH to go through, no big deal. 

Then cashflow split would be transferred via ACH bank transfer as to have paper trail for tax purposes.

I recommend that you contact Apartment Medic in Syracuse.

You can find a 2% bank return with no head ache of a rental.

You can explore it more.I don't use the full service, mostly the ACH collections, which works really well for me as it splits out each building with it's own accounts, including separate security deposit accounts.Bottom line, I do recommend it and it costs me around $2.70 per month per apt considering that I have 25.Hope this helps.Llew

In this regard, thelocal branch manager suggested setting up a separate business account to use for tenants rent check deposits.This way the main checking account isn’t exposed.The goal is cut out using a drop box and also save tenants the addition ACH or credit card charges.Anyone do this with no hassles?