Hi @Stephen Spradley,
Technically the MLS (or Multiple Listing Service) is accessed by Realtors. You can have your real estate license and still not be a Realtor. It's strange but at least in CA where I am licensed, unless you are a paying member of the National Association of Realtors and therefor a member of your local association of Realtors, you are 1) not allowed to brand yourself as a "Realtor" and 2) you cannot have your own login portal to your local area MLS.
That being said, most all sites like Trulia, Zillow, Redfin, etc, all use syndicated information directly from the local area MLS. In other words, when I get a new listing and input that info and pics to the my local area "MLS", all of that info is basically immediately available on Zillow, Trulia, etc.
If you're getting the itch to go deeper into your goals, I would recommend playing around with searches on those big name sites like Zillow until you get an idea of the activity in your market. Look into the "Just Sold" in addition to the "Just Listed" because the just solds will give you the incite into what people are actually buying property for in your area. A phrase you will read a lot in these forums is that property is only worth what someone will actually pay for it...
As you get more confident, those sites also make it easy to find reputable agents to work with in your local area so you can start walking property. Happy hunting!
