Buying wholesale or rental for first time

[Suzanne Lee]

I have been thinking about either wholesaling or buying rentals either long-term or short-term. I have read where it recommends that you get a realtor. It seems like you may not need a realtor if you're buying Wholesale but what about if you're buying a rental possibly off of MLS or from a wholesaler/FSBO. If you don't have a realtor how do you run comps to check numbers on a property. Is there a place where I can pull historical data from markets/ neighborhoods to see if buying property even makes sense for long term rentals and short term rentals (air bnb/vrbo )?