Should I become a licensed realtor?

[David Myers]

I'm an investor (in Texas) looking for rental property leads. I currently use various sources to find leads on the MLS. But I'm thinking that I could do much better if I had direct access to the MLS data. I'm considering investing 180 hours in the required training to become a licensed realtor. Then I would have access to the most current data, and I could run my own comps. I'm sure others have at least considered this. Can anyone share any advice? Thanks.