To properly renew a lease with a tenant, several tasks SHOULD be done:1) Evaluate the property to make sure tenant is taking care of it and you want them to stay.2) Do a market analysis of rental rates.3) Determine target rental increase amount4) We present all this to the tenant, as we assume they're looking at rental rates on Zillow, etc.5) We then ask the tenant what adjustment they think is fair and then negotiate rent amount and lease term (we always try to go for 2 years).6) New lease sent electronically to sign.All of this takes time, hence a Renewal Fee.

He claims they are verifiable online and that I should be comfortable doing business over the phone and internet.

 So if an agent is not strong in using social media, are there services they can outsource this task to?

Flipping here in the bay area is no easy task, and I am glad you have your buy box figured out.

Please tell me you are frickin kidding....This is the stupidest thing I have read on the internet today.Tenants have the right to have their owner political views that differ from yours.

Perform the same task in each app to ensure a fair comparison.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.Run a credit/screening report on yourself.Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, and attach a fake invoice.Enter charges to the tenant's ledger.Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.Sign documents electronically.Run owner reports.After testing a few apps, one should clearly stand out.

Or would that be a futile task?

When traveling, the internet access was indispensable.

I don't know how low it goes but my spidy-sense is it's a double task-action, and one of those is to generate a "crisis" to allow the "savior" to come forward.

Or would that be a futile task?