alarms, fire detection, fire surpression, moisture detection and other home automation systems are all things you should check on for discounts for your rentals and residential properties. 

Most automate lease renewals via a platform, or just toss them in a mail and have the tenant return them with next months rent.

I'm a computer guy and like to automize stuff.

My PM posts the listing on their site and they have some automated interface that sends that listing to Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads and other sites.

Good places to advertise:  www.ahrn.com (automated housing referral network)' used by the military; free to post. www.militarybyowner.com; this one costs but the cheapest ad isn't very much. 

I get lots of automated responses from the Zillow prospects that either (a) ask questions that are clearly answered in the narrative, or (b) don't actually ask anything (i.e. "1-click inquiry")For all of its criticisms, CL still works the best for me.If you've tried other sources of marketing, please disregard my input. ;)

This will be the first year I try this out with tenants, as a means to fully automate from ad, access, contracts, and collection.

(I don't have the credit to buy my first property yet, so I figured making 10% as a property manager of this house would be a good way to get my feet wet.)I'm planning to use a tenant screening application form/credit check/background check tool I found for free online that automates the entire process, and then — assuming the guy I'm talking to via craigslist passes those screenings — meet him at the property Sunday for a walk-through.

That's why I self manage 75 properties and have automation systems in place such that I know what is happening without going there.I wouldn't look for cheap property management though.

Automation can sometimes lead to the data being jumbled.Consider Premium Listings:When you do a property search on any major website, you will likely see certain properties at the top time and time again.