I do know an independent landlord in our area that has one duplex and a fair housing organization filed a suit against him two years ago and he has had to defend it.  

I am especially interested in knowing how much capital it takes to get entitlements organized, etc.

So, agents do not use anything more sophisticated than posting to social media? 

Feel free to inquire about their staff qualifications if it's a larger organization.2.

If you're going to get into REI just start with the hard work and grow it organically, you know like a side job.

I'm organizing four events across the US for local short-term rental hosts to come together to have a beer and chat about challenges they've faced and things they've learned over the year and swap a few stories.

Similar to what John Kunich said.And we have used Baselane to organize our finances and manage our spend better, e.g we don't defer maintenance, we still spend the money as needed. 

You might consider using accounting software tailored for real estate investors, which can help streamline the process and keep everything organized.

Given that there are two ways to grow your business, organically, posting here and on social media, I for instance have a blog, now both in my experience and talking with people who have or had tried to build that way, it’s wayyyyy harder now than before, interest in real estate is way down, I know a few people with pretty large YouTube following’s views are way down.

That's still $1,000 to $1,200 more than I think is reasonable for what I am having done.When I turned in my taxes, she expressed that she was shocked at how organized my tax prep was.