I just pulled into a parking spot for lunch at McDonalds, ugh. Anyway, there are 2 reserved parking spots for mobile App ordering with McD's. You order and pay through the app, you pull into the parking spot and enter the number of your spot into the app and they bring the food to your car.

I see this and I see a huge line of people waiting to order at the regular drive through.

It's similar to what the guy wrote about in the book the 4 hour work week. He said stop waiting for your receipt at the bank if your making deposits. He said tell them to mail you a receipt.

It's like my morning coffee. I try to avoid DD anymore. Their lines and personally I don't care for their politics. So I drive 1/4 mile away to a privately owned coffee shop with local clientele and when the lady sees me pull through the drive thru, she has my coffee ready for me when I pull up to the window.

Other thing in the business get streamlined like, but some do not.

What do you streamline and what do you keep old fashioned?

I don't like automated deposit machines .... afraid the machine will eat the check and not give me a copy or receipt

I call prospective applicants on the phone. There are a number of downsides to texting and emailing

1) no way to know if phone number or email address is "invalid" (sometimes email gets you a bounceback)

2) no way to know if the msg was "received" by phone or email inbox

3) no way to know if the recipient read the msg

4) no way to force recipient to respond

NE,

"I'm LOVIN it!" The mobile order app for MacD's. 3-4 minutes and my food is in my hand while drive thru and lobby folks have not even placed their order.

At Newark airport the waiting areas now have charging ports and tablets so you can easily order food and drinks while waiting WITHOUT going into the restaurant.

Newark and CHicago also had self-pay shops for snacks and such. No attendant, scan your own on the honor system. We worked out the numbers and they can afford to $800? in merchandise each day and still break even. Open 24/7.

"New" for Rentals: autodraft, PayDayRent, video walkthru on the web, drone aerial neighborhood views coming soon, texting, receiving apps by text, lockbox showings, alarm systems with video so we can see and talk to touring prospects (just trying this. We've done a few Facetime tours.), LED chip lights

"Old": screening "by hand", repairs have not changed much just tips and tricks along the way, bookkeeping on Quicken 98 cuz it's simple, still take SOME money orders from problem or special payers like parents, 1+1 still = 2.

Good news about email: you CAN use plugins such as Boomerang to confirm a) when the recipient clicks on the message and b) when the open any attachment sent with the message. Can you tell 100% sure they actually read, understood, and retain the content? Nope, but I've found the same true even after going over a lease step by step. There isn't a technology or a human-ability yet that has overcome the "zone out" mentality.

For texts, I finish with, "plz reply to confirm you got this." If I NEED a reply and they don't, I'll ping them again...and again. Boomerang has a 'resend' feature that you can turn off once a response it received. Much faster than calling and leaving voice mails that I never know if they check either.

Pluses and minuses to both strategies. In the end, I'd say it's personal preference. Do what you like that works best.

Old school: I still do lease signing and the walk thru in person. Some LLs in my town do not. People can buy houses today with digital sigs, so the day is coming when I will follow the trend. I could see doing a Face-time or Skype "walk thru" and E-Signature lease so I could rent a property while I'm at Disney World or on the lake. Have my talking lease uploaded to YouTube and the tenant must click "Like" and/or comment on it to confirm they viewed it before I give them the key box code for their residence key. Maybe combine that with making them take pictures/video of any property defects and email them; otherwise, the lease says, "This property is 100% good to go!"

New stuff: ACH (just started this month!), digital pre-screening, digital apps, website, canned copy/paste emails and texts, online only advertising (no yard signs for about 4 years).

To do list (convert old to new): Online work orders generated from tenant website submitted maintenance requests that email/text my maintenance providers.

Technology is making the world a more convenient place. Face-to-face interaction is great insofar as it is actually necessary (i.e. court, 2 minute in-home visit), but what I'm finding is the more I analyse most situations, the fewer times I find face-to-face is actually necessary.

" If I NEED a reply and they don't, I'll ping them again...and again."

I hate it when a simple 30-60s conversation ends up taking hours of back and forth waiting on text replies. Sure most of the times with current tenants, all it means is they are delaying their own repair request.

New - Google voice, open houses rather than individual showings, and remote deposits instead of going to bank.

Old - I still collect checks from the PO box monthly. I have a good reason for this however and prefer not to change to auto-draft from tenant checking.

I just photo shop my face onto the picture of a beach. It is a real time and money saver. Don't have to interact with people, avoid all the hassle of the airports, and the booze is a lot cheaper and not watered down.

I started using DocuSign for leases a year ago. Love it.

I had someone pending back on Feb 7, and I was flying out on Feb 8. I used a key locker on the door for the keys, and off I went. She texted early on the 9th that she wanted it and to move in the 10th. Had her ZellePay me the rent and fee, we had already approved her. Sent the lease via DocuSign from my hotel room, and once she signed, I provided her the key locker code to get the key and to take the locker off. Picked it up when I got home the 23rd.

Newish: Deposits & Rent paid by Zelle. Leases signed via PDFiller online. Master Lease connected to spreadsheet of tenants info and just merge to create new lease. Update Master Lease once for all new leases. Pre-screen questions online via Google Forms.

I walked into a business and signed in for service. In the meantime people showed up 20 minutes later who made a phone reservations that got served before me. I had asked how many are in line before me and was told I was the next person to be served. That's the next walk in customer, not someone with an online or phone reservation.

"I don't like automated deposit machines .... afraid the machine will eat the check and not give me a copy or receipt"

Interestingly I had a money order get lost by the teller or someone else years ago after a real face to face deposit inside the bank. Luckily the tenant still had the money order number and it got resolved.

After that experience I always photocopy a money order before depositing it.

SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY,

cant buy a thing without somebody trying to convince me to take their survey to win $5000 and then they write their name and circle it like I am going to win them a bonus.

Home Depot is the worst - THINK ABOUT 5 SECONDS TIMES A zillion RECEIPTS

They say the the "water cooler" stuff that encompasses from saying "WAZ-UP"to writing headers and your name on e-mails is killing productivity

Venmo is in, checks are out.

eSigning is coming, but I'm in no hurry. I prefer a person sign a lease while there in the rental. I've watched judges ask people why they signed if they found a fault.

I'm holding onto emails for as long as I can, however I see that texting has all but taken over. I still send out all leases before signing. I do this with email, can't do it with my phone and text.

"SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY, SURVEY,"

Tell me about it...I have survey fatigue. :)