I'm a self employed software developer with a full time contact for a company building automated HVAC equipment.

However you decide to start, focus on a PROCESS and AUTOMATING.  

I have had CPAs default but statistically they are a very good lending risk.Assets, today an aspect many lenders are not too interested in with automated underwriting....but, this is telling you many things.

Is there a way to automate rent collection?

There is NO AUTOMATION to hard money or private money lending and the only way to know if you are for sure pre-approved is to collect all documents and verify upfront what the lender will require to fund the deal.

However i would think that a creative owner could automate some of that.

It's a real pain since the whole point of using their software was to automate.

I make these generalizations because I stay in touch with and receive all kinds of automated email/text from about 30 wholesalers daily, as well as my Facebook feed has at least 3 new off market and MLS listings daily.

@Jana Cain Thx for your feedback.I'm trying to put together as much information that I can to establish the best automated system possible and certainly providing access to the bank statements is a must. 

So, I'm not sure to have someone who isn't familiar with rehabbing figure it out.You're not just looking at condition, but you also have to figure out what materials to use for the specific project, whether there are hidden defects, if there are issues that can't be ascertained from pictures (like the smell of mold), etc.This isn't something that can be easily automated.