I screen with my eyes (visuals mean a lot. 

Within the last two months I did what I thought was making my home “renter proof” got rid of carpet, added new appliances, repaired and painted walls, fixed up the landscaping for some visual appeal.

I have heard a story or two of people having the management company sending video walk thru of day to day operation but a video may not be the best way to visually see things.

To get a visual, is a basement dirt floor, no entry, but private; 1st floor kitchen & living room, however they just threw a stove & frig, in a room, so, I would have to put in an actual kitchen; 3rd floor 2 bedrooms & full bath (its nasty and needs a full gut), 4th Floor is an attic that is like a full floor so it's a nice perk to store stuff; but the condition is beyond what I can describe...it's like you owned a building for 50 years and you did no renovation EVER and that's the condition. 

You can do visual inspection first though for certain properties.

I am mostly concerned about a visually respectable way to show the division in the two lots.

The pic throws the visual off because there is 70 years of caulking  (built 1948) at those joints.  

If I lived in an area hostile to landlords or a place with a voracious appetite for tax dollars I'd certainly consider investing outside my home area (actually I'd probably consider moving), but I think it would be hard owning property that I can't work on, see, or visually inspect easily. 

As long as you have a process, it goes pretty quick.I go through a house and do a quick visual inspection to identify specific issues I want to document.

Sometimes we even stake the corners of the projects so that they can visually see what is going on.