I graduated from a trade school last year for Piano Technology.

I make a decent salary doing work in technology sector, but my instinct tells me that I should pay off my debt before owning my first investment property.

However, technology today can alleviate most of the extensive work of yesteryear.

., filled in, and they can sign it and scan it and email it back to me, and mail me a check for the deposit by x-date (my owner was allergic to technology). 

The technology is getting a lot better. 

I, too, used to be against cordless tools, but think that the battery technology has come so far that cordless are the way to go (especially if you don’t have electricity near).

Focus all your energy on developing your "core technology" whether that's sourcing deals, operations, negotiations, etc. 

.:)Indeed it's verybhatd to gain a good cash flow from rentals.At this point of your story I think you need to think more about fliping some properties and than make your investment to keep..That way you can purchase fee deals and manage your own for a while untill you are ready to let it managed.Diy management is much easyer with today's technology.

How are you fellow landlords currently using today's technology to collect tenant's monthly rent? 

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/22/technology/airbnb-...from the article"This week, Los Angeles started to take action against rent-controlled apartments that have been illegally converted into short-term rentals The city filed criminal charges against the Farifax building's owners and civil cases against three other building owners.