First off congratulations on saving 70K. That by far is the biggest hurdle that prevents most people from investing.
Allot of your questions I think have different responses based on your plans after you buy the house(s) are you going to self manage? Or are you going to hire a property manager? For instance are you going to keep track of the finances yourself or give your accountant a shoebox of receipts at the end of the year? You don't need a real estate agent immediately if you have an idea as to how much you are willing to spend. I would say your max spend is 5 x your down payment or $350K. I think if you self manage or don't a good CPA is very valuable. You have enough money so a good relationship with your banker is not terribly important at this point. You should be able to get a conventional loan and not have todo anything to elaborate. If you want to stretch your dollars you could look for low down payment programs in that case a banker could be very valuable. I've never hired an attorney.
BP is a very positive forum you don't see too much tough love on these forums. But I would say that the word "team" gets thrown around a little too much. The podcasts talk about building out your team, I think its nice to have people you can count on and bounce ideas off. But I personally don't think my banker and accountant are cheering for me. You need to know your stuff so you don't get taken advantage of. If you are computer savvy and are comfortable with numbers I would encourage you to acquire Quickbooks and start playing with that. Good luck!
