I am interested to learn if there are any brokerages that cater more to investors?

at this stage I would encourage him to put the cash in a brokerage account paying 5%  like T bills and keep searching and as well I would also advise to househack first before buying low end looks great on paper rentals find a nice duplex buy it live in one side rent the other rinse repeat.

It is very easy to do. 75% of my real estate brokerage clients are people who have exchanged in or out of a different asset to make their lives better - more units, bigger buildings, newer buildings, better location etc...1031 is the way to go with a solid real estate team. 

Making contacts with possible mentors and learning new things may both happen at this great opportunity.Speak with local brokerages for real estate.

(I targeted only off-market deals, but that will certainly change now)I'm just looking for an investor-friendly brokerage to hang my license in the DC Metro (MD, VA, and DC) now.Thanks to everyone, particularly Wale, for chiming in on this post.Best of luck to anyone who decides to dive in and be an agent as well.

But they are well known in the brokerage community.that fee schedule is pretty much standard all across the mid west.. nothing jumps out at me.pay your own utl fee's and you save those or better yet have the tenants pay them.. the inspections have to be done one way or the other 50 bucks to do what they do is dirt cheap.mowing the lawns is going rate..so  pretty standard really.. usually they will have your authorization to spend more than a certain amount say 300 bucks.. and usually turn over or maintenance is marked up at least 15% over cost.I can tell you unless you have thousands of units no one is getting rich in the PM bizz.. not sure how many they have and maybe they have thousands of doors in that case they are probably doing quite well on the PM size.. anything at 500 and under is usually kind of break even for most. or just a wage frankly.

THe $125,000 costs does not include any settlement or carrying costs and expect the borrower to pay around 7% on the exit in form of settlement and brokerage transaction fees.  

(personally, I use a brokerage account so I can get the pretty risk-free 5.25% in a money market fund that is completely liquid).To be blunt, if you really are limited in funds... 

Call a local RE brokerage and just ask for a recommendation for good PM's 

If your broker/agent is doing a good job then you should at least have some prospects.