I do that if I have one application or several. ( I don't know what kind of volume you are talking though)With students/ co-signers/groups everyone needs to sign the lease before I stop showing.

Not only do those offerings have backups, but security is always a top concern and the cloud offering companies can afford security others cannot (due to volume).

You'll find that gurus generally stick to equity financing transactions as cash lenders usually have attorneys and mortgage types available to them.I've threatened to write a financing book, the problem is that financing is very involved, it's another industry full of regulatory issues, prudent practices, various applications and concepts, so no book will do it, it would take volumes to give instruction and by the time you read something, there can be changes.However, don't give up on lending.

As long as she is paying on time, I should have money to manage a tenant that have high volume of messages/requests/demands. 

I think one thing to keep is mind is the sheer VOLUME of REO's in Southern California.

Most seem to use a $X/month (covers MLS/NAR fees) and flat $X/transaction (covers E&O fees) type model for low volume agents.If anyone has any specific recommendations for a particular broker or brokers to avoid, it would be appreciated.

That being said, if you are working in areas with many volume rehabbers able to work with incredibly thin margins (as I am), you do have to adjust.

Their plan calls for increasing transaction volume to increase revenue until they reach profitability and become cash-flow positive.

That does not mean that your business does not have to comply with a myriad of federal laws and rules that requires setting up a formal Compliance Management System to deal with them.If volume is only a few houses a year, it is almost impossible to legally seller finance anymore because of all the new regulations.

Many investors on here want to buy some dump for 30,000.Okay even if the PM got 10% fee and it rented for say 600 a month.That's only 60 bucks a month and that's not including gas back and forth driving to the property,filing out reports and leases,taking calls from tenants,going to eviction hearing as an agent on behalf of the landlord,calling landlord for every little repair and have the landlord drop f bombs on you because their cash flow is affected and also if the agent is not a broker owner they have to give some to the brokerage.NOW a BPO report for 50.00 that takes 45 minutes is looking REALLY GOOD.I don't know what the solution is but I know the pay structure for PM's shows that simply the money isn't there for the time invested.Now a PM if they have volume will say occasionally the client will use them to sell a property etc. and that is an extra revenue generator.The bigger properties in multifamily have a small salary plus bonus factor.The small salary makes the PM just barely get by and it's not large enough to allow them to be lazy.This motivates them to deliver results but you have to make sure the bonus matches how much they perform.In any profession it's about the 2 sides agreeing to what do I get paid for what they expect.I don't really like out of state investors doing one off small houses.It's a recipe for disaster.Now if you are buying an apartment complex etc. then the money could be there for a PM.Use them for the sale and management but you are talking larger dollars.I get asked to help with little houses all the time.There is just no money in it and it would take away from my larger deals and my own investments.I wish some more PM's would chime in to give their input.